Department for Transport

Railways: Finance

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Rail Industry Association's recent analysis on the progress of projects included in the Rail Network Enhancements' Pipeline.

Kevin Foster: The 2021 Spending Review demonstrated the Government’s commitment to rail and set out funding to allow us to continue to invest at record levels in rail enhancements to improve the railways. The enhancements pipeline is continuing to progress as RIA’s analysis shows. We are continuing to make decisions that manage funding to deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

Great British Railways

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to establish Great British Railways.

Kevin Foster: Whilst we will not be taking forward primary legislation on rail reform in this session due to pressures on Parliamentary time, the Great British Railways Transition Team is already in place.We are continuing to work with the sector to tackle the challenges set out in the Plan for Rail, including improving online retail for the benefit of customers and other areas for reform which do not require primary legislation to be undertaken.

Railways: Fares

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether it is her policy that rail fares will increase in line with the Retail Price Index in 2023.

Kevin Foster: In August we guaranteed we will not be increasing fares as much as the July RPI figure and we will freeze fares until March 2023.

Great British Railways

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she plans to announce the location of the new headquarters for Great British Railways in 2022.

Kevin Foster: A final decision and announcement will be made on the location for the GBR headquarters shortly.

Railways: Construction

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the (a) Cambridge South Station, (b) Northumberland Line, (c) White Rose Station, (d) Thorpe Park, (e) Transpennine Route Upgrade, (f) East West Rail, (g) Leeds Station Enhancement, (h) Manchester Improvements, (i) Midland Main Line Phase Three and (j) Northern Powerhouse Rail is awaiting her consent to begin construction; what the nature of that approval is; and when each application was submitted to her Department for approval.

Kevin Foster: The schemes listed are at different stages of development and delivery. There are different types of consent, including formal planning consent, which is not required for all schemes. Some, such as the Northumberland line, have received planning consent already.At the current time one scheme is awaiting planning consent. The application for Cambridge South Station was submitted on the 18 June 2021. Following closure of the Inquiry on 10 June 2022, the planning inspector submitted a report and recommendation to the Secretary of State on 4 October 2022. The Secretary of State will now make a decision on the application.

Roads: Construction

Louise Haigh: To ask, the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of the Road projects list in Annex B: Infrastructure Projects of the Growth Plan 2022 are awaiting her consent to begin; and when each application was submitted to her Department for approval.

Katherine Fletcher: In this answer we are describing approval of the funding or business case, and not decisions related to statutory planning or consents.All 10 of the Strategic Road Network schemes on the list are committed schemes in the Roads Investment Strategy. 6 of these will require a specific funding or business case sign off from DfT Ministers prior to starting construction. 15 of the 31 Major Road Network schemes named in the growth plan have been given conditional funding approval and are now working towards final approval. The local authority promoters of the remaining 16 are working up their cases to seek conditional funding approval. The applications for the 45 Safer Roads Fund schemes will be sent to local authorities shortly for return in the new year. The projects are then expected to begin by the end of the financial year.

Road Traffic Act 1988

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 September 2022 to Question 48313 on Road Traffic Act 1988, whether it is still his policy to publish a call for evidence on the Road Traffic Act 1988 by the end of 2022.

Katherine Fletcher: The Department for Transport is considering the publication of a call for evidence on motoring offences. As noted previously, while work is still continuing as to its precise scope and timings, it is expected to include aspects of drink and drug driving, failure to stop and report and the opportunity to raise other matters.

Department for Transport: Public Expenditure

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the expected annual expenditure will be on the Major Projects Portfolio projects for the (i) Rapid Charging Fund, (ii) Midlands Rail Hub, (iii) East Coast Mainline Programme, (iv) East Coast Digital Programme, (v) A417 Air Balloon, (vi) Lower Thames Crossing, (vii) HS2 Phase 2b Western Leg, (viii) A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down, (ix) Further Electrification of Midland Main Line (MML3), (x) East West Rail Configuration State 1, (xi) A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet, (xii) HS2 Phase 2a, (xiii) A12 Chelmsford to A120 Widening, (xiv) Transpennine Route Upgrade, (xv) A66 Northern Trans-Pennine, (xvi) HS2 Phase 1, (xvii) Rail Passenger Services, (xviii) Crossrail Programme, (xix) East West Rail Connection Stage 2 and 3, (xx) Midland Main Line Programme, (xxi) 2nd Generation UK Search and Rescue Aviation and (xxii) Rail Transformation Programme; and if he will place that information in the House of Commons Library.

Kevin Foster: The annual expenditures of these 22 major projects for 2021-22 were published on 20 July 2022 with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) Annual Report 2021-2022. This data can be found in the accompanying ‘GMPP Government Major Projects Portfolio AR Data March 2022’ document as ‘Financial Year Forecast (£m) (including Non-Government Costs)'. It is not currently possible to provide the expected annual expenditures for 2022-23 but these will be published at the appropriate time.

Department for Transport: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many officials in her Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation, as (a) headcount and (b) Full Time Equivalent.

Kevin Foster: The information requested could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many officials in his Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation, as (a) headcount and (b) Full Time Equivalent.

Dean Russell: There are approximately 77 FTE staff within BEIS working on Retained EU Law. The Department does not centrally hold the total headcount of all staff working on such legislation.

Patents

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of Standard Essential Patents on SMEs ability to (a) enter and (b) compete in markets.

Dean Russell: The Government recently concluded a call for views on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and published a summary of responses and next steps [accessible here] on 5th August 2022. The call for views explored whether the ecosystem around SEPs functions effectively and strikes the right balance for all entities involved, including SMEs. Views were specifically sought on competition and market functioning.Given the breadth of issues raised and divergent views received, the Government requires a further period to assess the issues in respect of SEPs. As part of this further assessment the Government will continue to engage businesses of all sizes.

Climate Change

Matt Rodda: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps the Government has taken to help tackle the global climate emergency.

Graham Stuart: The net zero target remains a Government priority and the net zero transition will provide huge opportunities for jobs, investment, innovation and exports.The UK continues to lead internationally in pursuit of our climate goals. The Government drives global climate ambition through leadership in multilateral forums, including the COP26 Presidency, as well as the recent Global Clean Energy Action Forum in the United States.

Employment: Lancashire

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of jobs that are linked to insulating properties in Lancashire.

Graham Stuart: The transition to high-efficiency low-carbon buildings could support 240,000 skilled jobs by 2035, concentrated on areas of the UK where investment is needed most. BEIS does not have an estimate for the number of jobs that are linked to insulating properties in specific areas such as Lancashire.

Energy Bills Rebate

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent progress his Department has made on establishing the Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding; and when (a) boat dwellers and (b) park home residents are likely to receive the £400 payment.

Graham Stuart: The Government is working quickly to make the support available to applicants as soon as possible. The Government is working with a range of organisations, such as local authorities, as well as Devolved Administrations and across UK Government, to finalise the details and have the process up and running for applications this winter.

Energy: Meters

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help support people who are required to use prepayment energy meters and (a) require continuous energy for health reasons, (b) have an illness that is exacerbated by cold weather and (c) live in a household with young children or older adults.

Graham Stuart: The Government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is on top of the £800 of one-off support to eight million of the most vulnerable households to help with the cost of living

Immunosuppression

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on taking steps to support immunocompromised people who are not able to leave their homes due to the continued risk of covid-19 infection in the context of rising energy prices.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and they will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is on top of the £800 of one-off support to eight million of the most vulnerable households to help with the cost of living.

Fuel Oil: Prices

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support measures his Department will introduce to assist those who use oil to heat their homes with the rising cost of energy.

Graham Stuart: The Alternative Fuel Payment will provide a one-off payment of £100 to UK households that use alternative fuels for heating, such as heating oil. This payment will ensure that households who do not benefit through the Energy Price Guarantee receive support for the cost of the fuel they do use, comparable to the support provided to on grid gas users.

Small Businesses: Havering

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support small businesses in Havering.

Dean Russell: The Government provides a range of support that all small businesses can access. These include information on starting up and running a business on GOV.UK, one to one advice via our free Business Support Helpline and through 38 Growth Hubs across England, Small businesses will also benefit from the £15 billion of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living. The Government has also acted to reverse the National Insurance rise, which will save small businesses £4,200 on average and brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will protect small businesses from high energy bills over the winter. In addition, during Covid, the Government provided nearly £27 billion to local authorities across England through a package of business support including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, business rates relief, grants and loans. The London Borough of Havering received £92m of business grant support and reported making over 16,000 payments worth nearly £80m to their businesses. The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, provides support to new entrepreneurs. Since the Start Up Loans programme was launched in 2012, it has provided 355 loans to businesses in Havering, totalling £3,200,447.

Energy: Investment

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to help increase investment in the energy sector.

Graham Stuart: The Government’s clear focus on fixing the UK’s long term energy supply is creating major opportunities for private sector investment, in the North Sea following the 33rd licensing round, in nuclear given our ambition to progress two projects to FID next Parliament, and in renewables where we are moving to annual CfD auction rounds from 2023.

Unpaid Work

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to end unpaid internships.

Dean Russell: Current legislation is clear that an individual’s entitlement to the minimum wage depends on whether they are a “worker” for minimum wage purposes. Most internships are already highly likely to constitute work and entitle the individual to be paid at least the minimum wage from the first day of employment.It is the responsibility of all employers to ensure they are paying their staff correctly and we will continue to take robust enforcement action against employers who fail to pay the minimum wage. Since 2015 we have ordered employers to repay £100 million of unpaid wages to 1 million workers.

Insulation

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what data his Department hold on the number of trained insulation installers in the UK.

Graham Stuart: The Department does not hold data on the total number of trained insulation installers in the wider supply chain. According to the records held by TrustMark, there are 763 TrustMark registered and PAS 2030:2019 certified insulation installer businesses as of 20th October 2022. In total there are 1,941 TrustMark registered businesses that meet the requirements to participate in government retrofit schemes.

Solar Power

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of installing solar panels along (a) motorways and (b) industrial units, rather than on agricultural land.

Graham Stuart: Solar is a key part of the energy mix and needs sustained growth in both ground mount and rooftop capacity to meet our energy security and net zero goals. Installing solar panels along roads has been tested in some countries but experienced practical problems, including rapid panel deterioration due to heavy traffic vibrations and difficulties in accessing sites for maintenance. The Government is supporting the installation of panels on the roofs of industrial units where this is technically feasible through a business rate exemption until 2035 and tax relief. The Government is also reviewing existing permitted development rights to simplify planning and enable more rooftop solar deployment on industrial buildings.

Energy: Prices

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to consumers in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) England of gas transmission costs as a proportion of total energy costs.

Graham Stuart: Gas transmission charges for the South East region under the Ofgem price cap for October 2022 are £14.20 per domestic customer per year based on typical gas consumption levels (excluding VAT). This compares to an average of £15.75 across Great Britain. Gas transmission charges represent less than 1% of a typical domestic dual fuel energy bill.

Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed reduction of 10,000 full-time equivalent staff at Royal Mail on their commitment to a universal six-day-a-week postal service; and if he will make a statement.

Dean Russell: The Government’s objective continues to be ensuring the provision of a financially sustainable, accessible and affordable universal postal service. The Government has no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements of the universal postal service which are set out in the Postal Services Act 2011. Under the Postal Services Act 2011 Ofcom regulates the provision of the UK’s universal postal service, ensuring it meets the needs of users, while also considering Royal Mail’s financial sustainability and efficiency. Ofcom will publish its annual monitoring update on the postal market later this year. This report will cover market developments, consumers’ experiences of postal services, and Royal Mail’s performance in delivering the universal postal service. Ofcom will continue to monitor Royal Mail’s ability to deliver its statutory commitments.

Buildings: Insulation

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to Answer of 20 September 2022 to Question 51421 on Buildings: Insulation, if he will make an estimate of the number of properties that have undergone heat insulation works in the West Midlands in 2022 to date.

Graham Stuart: The table below shows the number of insulation measures funded through Government schemes, installed in properties in the West Midlands in 2022 up to the latest available data. The Government schemes in scope here are the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD), and Green Homes Grant Vouchers (GHGV). Further information on these schemes are available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/household-energy-efficiency-national-statistics;https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/green-home-grant-statistics. Number of insulation measures[1]installed in West Midland funded through ECO[2], LAD and GHGV[3] ECOLADGHGVTotal20223,66688213,775

Parental Pay

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many claimants of Statutory Paternity Pay there have been in each financial year since 2010-11.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress the Government has made since December 2019 on making it easier for fathers to take statutory paternity leave.

Dean Russell: Information provided by employers to HMRC show the number of individuals in receipt of Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP). This data provides a broad indication of take-up but does not include anyone taking unpaid paternity leave.Table 1: Individuals in receipt of Statutory Paternity Pay, 2015/16 to 2021/22 (the latest year for which full year data is available)Year (April to March)No. of individuals in receipt of SPP2015-16215,1002016-17219,9002017-18212,7002018-19201,8002019-20208,0002020-21176,4002021-22204,200Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.Figures are based on the total number of individuals in a given year, irrespective of when the payment first started. Some individuals will be counted across two years. In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming the parental leave and pay system, including making changes to Paternity Leave. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will respond in due course.

Directors: Disqualification

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount recouped to creditors other than HMRC through Compensation Orders made against directors disqualified under the powers of the Rating and Director Disqualification Act 2021 to date.

Dean Russell: The Rating and Director Disqualifications Act came into force on 15th December 2021 and gave the Insolvency Service, on behalf of the Secretary of State, the power to seek, where appropriate, disqualification and compensation orders against directors of dissolved companies. As at 20th October 2022, the Insolvency Service has authorised disqualification and compensation order proceedings against 16 directors which are yet to be determined. The Insolvency Service has not to date obtained a compensation order or undertaking pursuant to the aforementioned statutory power.

Compensation: Court Orders

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of Compensation Orders that have been made and (b) the total amount of funds that have been recouped from Compensation Orders in each of the last five years.

Dean Russell: In each of the last five years the Insolvency Service has obtained the following number of Compensation Orders or Undertakings under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and recovered the following sums: NumberAmount (£)18/190019/201020/210021/220022/2313£58,550  The data provided is Insolvency Service management information and not from official statistics.

Directors: Disqualification

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of directors who have been disqualified for fraudulent activity and have since committed further fraud offences after being disqualified, in each of the last five years.

Dean Russell: In each of the last five years the Insolvency Service has obtained the following number of director disqualifications. 18/19 - 124619/20 - 128520/21 - 98121/22 - 80322/23 - 441 Directors may be disqualified for a range of corporate misconduct which can include fraudulent activity. Fraudulent activity is not recorded separately and therefore the data requested is not available. However, the full details of misconduct are published by The Insolvency Service on the Directors Disqualification register at https://www.gov.uk/search-the-register-of-disqualified-company-directors.

Public Holidays

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his policy to award an additional bank holiday for the coronation of the Monarch.

Dean Russell: The Coronation is a historic event which will be watched and celebrated by millions across the world. Plans are being considered carefully and we will update in due course.

Employment Tribunals Service: Data Protection

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 28 February 2022 to Question 125224 on Employment Tribunals Service: Data Protection, whether it is his Department's policy to take into consideration the outcomes of previous Employment Tribunal decisions during the recruitment of prospective candidates.

Dean Russell: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not consider the outcomes of previous Employment Tribunals in relation to the recruitment of prospective candidates. Personal data in relation to candidates is anonymised for selection panels in the early stages of selection.

Flexible Working

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Good Work Plan: Proposals to support families, published on 19 July 2019, whether it is still his Department's policy to bring forward legislative proposals on flexible working; and when he plans to publish a response to that consultation.

Dean Russell: The Government responded to the flexible working elements of the “Good Work Plan: Proposals to support families” consultation in September 2021. This document “Making Flexible Working the Default” consulted on a range or proposals to make flexible working more accessible. The government will publish its response in due course.

Environment Protection: EU Law

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to bring forward new regulations protect and enhance the UK’s environmental standards in the context of the Government's September 2022 announcement that announced that all retained EU laws will be sunset on 31 December 2023.

Dean Russell: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave the Hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton on 18th October 2022 to Question 61307.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Taxis

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.

Dean Russell: Expenditure on taxi cabs was as shown in the following table. Taxi expenditure between Ministers and civil servants is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Taxi cabs expenditure2019/202020/212021/22(a) ministers and (b) civil servants£148,226£20,632£38,545

Fuel Poverty: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of levels of fuel poverty in Stockport constituency in each of the last five years.

Graham Stuart: The Department publishes annual statistics on the number and percentage of households in fuel poverty in England by Parliamentary Constituency, which can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-sub-regional-statistics.

British Association of Removers

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what (a) discussions and (b) other engagement his Department has had with the British Association of Removers since 26 July 2022, at which the issue of engagement was referred back to his Department by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Dean Russell: Ministers regularly meet with external stakeholders. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/beis-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings. The latest published data covers April to June 2022, further data will be published in due course. In line with Cabinet Office Guidance organisations are listed instead of individuals. Details of meetings held by officials are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Housing: Sales

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many residential property sales were registered at HM Land Registry across (a) all properties and (b) new-build properties in each local authority in England and Wales in each of the last three years; and what proportion of those were to (i) UK companies, (ii) overseas companies, (iii) UK-based individuals and (iv) individuals based overseas.

Dean Russell: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/price-paid-data-downloads contains information on property sales, broken down by local authority. The last three years’ data is provided with this answer in a separate spreadsheet. In summary, the breakdown is as set out in the table below. YearResidentialResidential classified as new build2022337,5403,1982021964,35954,6072020729,74385,1672019839,999112,303 We will place a detailed breakdown between UK and overseas companies, and individuals providing UK and non-UK correspondence addresses as soon as possible in the Libraries of the House.

Business: Energy

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, National Grid's announcement of 6 October 2022 that the UK may experience power cuts lasting three hours per day during winter 2022, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a compensation scheme for businesses to reimburse them for lost earnings in the context of Government contingency planning for energy security in winter 2022-23.

Graham Stuart: The Government is confident in its plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. Widespread power cuts are unlikely, and the Government has not established a compensation scheme.

Business: Energy

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to National Grid's announcement of 6 October 2022 that the UK may experience power cuts lasting three hours per day during winter 2022, whether he has made an assessment of which business types or industries may be required to reduce their energy consumption as part of contingency planning for energy security during winter 2022-23.

Graham Stuart: The Government is confident in its plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter and continues to work closely with Ofgem, National Grid and other key industry organisations to ensure the market can respond to any fluctuations in supply or demand. In the highly unlikely event of widespread disruption to electricity supplies, established emergency protocols would be implemented as early as possible to ensure an equitable distribution of electricity supply to customers, including industrial users, as far as reasonably practicable. No specific business types or industrial users are targeted to reduce energy usage as part of emergency measures

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his timescale is for (a) deciding and (b) announcing  whether the Government plans to extend Energy Bill Relief Scheme beyond 31 March 2023.

Graham Stuart: The Government has committed to carrying out a review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme by the end of the year to inform decisions on future support after March 2023, with any future support for those deemed eligible commencing on 1st April 2023 without a gap. The findings of the review will be published by the end of the year.

Energy Bills Rebate and Energy Price Guarantee: Flats

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that people living in blocks of flats with one main electrical meter and separate sub-meters in each flat will receive support under the (a) Energy Bills Support Scheme and (b) Energy Price Guarantee.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Prices Bill introduced on 12th October includes provisions that will require landlords and other intermediaries to pass the benefits they receive from the energy price support on to their tenants and end users as appropriate. Further details of the requirements under this legislation will be set out in regulations.

Carers: Low Incomes

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of rising energy costs on unpaid carers.

Graham Stuart: The Government has recognised the pressures on households caused by rising energy prices. This is why the Government introduced the Energy Bills Support Scheme, providing £400 off energy bills this winter and the Energy Price Guarantee, ensuring that a typical UK household will pay, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill up till April 2023, when the EPG will be reviewed.

Iron and Steel

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help deliver a (a) modern and (b) green steel sector by 2050.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Decarbonisation pathways are a commercial decision for companies. The Government is working closely with steel producers as they decide on the optimum route for their sites. Support for the sector includes over £780 million in electricity costs relief. The sector can also apply for over £1 billion available in competitive funding to support industry with energy efficiency and decarbonisation, including:Access to up to £66 million through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and the £289 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.Long-term work at the Materials Processing Institute.The opportunity to bid into industrial fuel switching innovation programmes.The Carbon Capture Usage and Storage Fund and the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund.

Iron and Steel: Finance

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of establishing a fund to help develop the UK steel industry, following the return of money from the EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

Jackie Doyle-Price: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer my Hon. Friend. the then Minister of State for Industry gave on 31st March 2022 to Question 141980. Since taking up his role as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, my Rt. Hon. Friend has prioritised engaging with my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, steel companies, local MPs and other interested parties from the steel sector. As a priority, we are now carefully considering the best way we can work together over the coming period to secure the best outcomes for our steel industry.

Construction: Mental Health

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the research by the Chartered Institute of Building entitled Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment, published on 11 May 2020, and the research by Mates in Mind and The Institute for Employment Studies entitled Supporting the mental health of self-employed construction workers, published in June 2022, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of procurement demands on the mental health of workers in (a) construction industry supply chains and (b) other parts of the construction industry.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Government is committed to working to improve health and safety, as well as mental and occupational health in the construction sector, to enable the sector to recruit and retain the workforce that it needs in future. This work is being taken forward through the Construction Leadership Council’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group, which brings together the Health and Safety Executive, industry representatives and trade unions to develop and circulate best practice and practical guidance for the industry. The Government is also aware that procurement and contractual practices in the sector can have an impact on mental health. The Government has set out its commitment to improving procurement processes, and ensure there are fair and transparent payment and contractual provisions in relation to government construction projects and programmes in the Construction Playbook.

Energy: Billing

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that energy customers who fall into debt in winter 2022 are not transferred onto prepayment meters against their wishes.

Graham Stuart: Many customers prefer prepayment meters to help them budget. Ofgem’s License Conditions require suppliers to consider all options for appropriate debt management. This can include installing a prepayment meter, but suppliers have to consider whether this is safe and practicable, including whether a prepayment meter is appropriate for the specific customer. When making this assessment, suppliers are required to consider whether a consumer’s vulnerability makes a prepayment meter a poor choice, for example where medical equipment is required.Ofgem rules restrict the imposition of a prepayment meter to repay debt except as a last resort.

Department of Health and Social Care

General Practitioners: Lancaster and Fleetwood

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE Fully qualified GPs excluding GPs in Training Grade practicing in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

Social Services: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with officials in her Department on the potential merits of regulating staff who work in social care settings.

Neil O'Brien: The Government keeps the health and care professions subject to statutory regulation under review and published a consultation, ‘Healthcare regulation: deciding when statutory regulation is appropriate’. While the Government’s view is that there is no immediate case to amend the groups which are regulated, the consultation asked how the powers to introduce and remove professions from regulation might be used in the future. Officials are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and the Government will publish its response in due course.

Mental Health: Children

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to (a) promote and (b) implement the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence entitled Social, emotional and mental wellbeing in primary and secondary education, NG223, published on 6 July 2022.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) works with stakeholders to communicate, disseminate, promote awareness and implement its guidelines. We expect health and social care commissioners to have due regard to NICE’s guidelines and to promote awareness amongst providers and staff.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress her Department has made on reaching the national target of 66.7 per cent for dementia diagnosis rates.

Neil O'Brien: As of August 2022, the dementia diagnosis rate was 62.1%. In 2021/22, the Government made £17 million available to clinical commissioning groups to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses.This included identifying areas of good practice in dementia diagnosis and provision of pre and post diagnostic support, which will be shared with dementia clinical networks and stakeholders.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beneficiaries of Healthy Start paper vouchers have not yet re-enrolled via the new online registration system.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Healthy Start Scheme: Migrants

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications to Healthy Start payment have been made by parents with No Recourse to Public Funds with British children; and (b) how many beneficiaries are currently in receipt of payments.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many eligible Beneficiaries for the Healthy Start voucher scheme there were in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland and (c) Wales between April and September 2022.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many officials in her Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation, as (a) headcount and (b) Full Time Equivalent.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Healthy Start Scheme

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will increase the value of Healthy Start payments to keep in line with food price inflation.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS England

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the (a) transparency and (b) inclusivity of processes for (i) NHS England Specialised services and (ii) the development of new commissioning policies.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) identification and (b) referral process for dementia diagnosis.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Heart Diseases: Medical Equipment

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of left ventricular assist devices as a long-term therapy for patients ineligible for transplantation.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dementia: Ethnic Groups

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people from ethnic minority communities are receiving timely dementia diagnoses.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Care Homes: Streatham

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Streatham constituency since 2010.

Neil O'Brien: Since May 2010, 17 care homes in Streatham constituency have been deactivated. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Respiratory System: Diseases

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, what recent progress her Department has made on increasing access to echocardiography in primary care to improve the investigation of patients with breathlessness.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Mental Health Services: Weaver Vale

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Weaver Vale constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health services, including in Weaver Vale. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Weaver Vale.

Life Expectancy: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of healthy life expectancy in Worsley and Eccles South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Malnutrition: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in Worsley and Eccles South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to help tackle health inequality in Worsley and Eccles South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

HIV Infection: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with HIV in Worsley and Eccles South constituency in each of the last five years.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Midwives: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of midwives in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Mental Health Services: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Life Expectancy: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Mental Health Services: Veterans

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many veterans have requested mental health support in each month since January 2019.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to help tackle health inequality in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: ‘Our plan for patients’, published on 22 September, sets out the immediate priorities to support individuals to live healthier lives, including improving access to health and care services in all areas and preventing ill-health. Further information on measures to address health disparities will be available in due course.The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities works with local system partners in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport to support programmes to reduce health inequalities, including providing evidence and intelligence.

NHS: Staff

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS employees are required to go through the NHS recruitment process when moving NHS Trusts to support their spouses’ transfer within the armed forces.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Staff

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS employees have moved jobs within the health service to support their spouses’ transfer within the armed forces in the last five years.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Public Expenditure

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority Annual Report on Major Projects 2021-22, published on 20 July 2022, what the expected annual (a) resource and (b) capital expenditure will be on the (i) Integrated Single Financial Environment, (ii) GP IT Futures Programme, (iii) ESR Transformation Programme, (iv) PHE Science Hub, (v) Frontline Digitisation, (vi) Shared Care Records, (vii) AI Labs, (viii) Supporting People at Home and (ix) New Hospital Programme in each financial year of those schemes.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Monkeypox: Southwark

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects adequate stocks of the monkeypox vaccine to be available in Southwark.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Clinical Priorities Advisory Group

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many treatments were scheduled for review by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in the last review round in May 2022; how many of those scheduled were approved; and how many could not be approved as the budget had been used by higher priority treatments.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Clinical Priorities Advisory Group

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the funding allocation from NHS England for the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group was in (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Workers

Alex Chalk: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to increase the amount provided by the social work bursary.

Neil O'Brien: The Department has no plans to increase the social work bursary amount for the forthcoming academic year.

Health: Poverty

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made on the impact in-work poverty on health outcomes.

Dr Caroline Johnson: We recognise the influence of determinants such as income have on health and the need to support low-income and vulnerable households in the context of increasing cost of living. The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save the average household at least £1,000 a year, in addition to the £37 billion allocated to measures to assist households and businesses, including £15 billion to directly support the most vulnerable households.

Dementia

Sir Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to publish details on her Department's 10-year plan for dementia.

Neil O'Brien: We are reviewing plans for dementia in England and further information will be available in due course.

NHS: Motor Vehicles

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of rolling out the use of sustainable hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel across the NHS ambulance and transport fleets in place of fossil diesel.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the NHS ambulance and transport fleet is diesel fuelled; and what steps she plans to take to help encourage the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of when the NHS will complete the electrification of its ambulance fleet; and whether her Department is taking steps to help (a) reduce diesel emissions and (b) improve air quality in the meantime.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the emission quality of fuel forward purchased by NHS Ambulance Trusts; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of switching to hydrotreated vegetable oil on the emissions quality of that fuel.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of ambulances using bunkered fuel rather than fuel purchased at forecourts.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. The National Health Service continually assesses the viability of new technologies to reduce costs and environmental impact. NHS Supply Chain has enhanced its fleet with sustainable vehicles which are hydrotreated vegetable oil ready.The NHS launched its national programme for a Greener NHS in 2020. ‘Delivering a ‘Net Zero' National Health Service’ sets out actions to respond to climate change with estates and travel and transport targets for achieving net zero direct emissions by 2040 and indirect emissions by 2045.Whilst ambulance trusts can already use bunkered fuel to achieve cost savings and improve resilience, the approach to fuel purchases is dependent on local circumstances and geography. Given the cost of installing new bunkered fuel facilities and the anticipated move towards electric vehicles, installing additional bunkered fuel facilities is unlikely to be cost effective in most locations.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the variation in the dementia diagnosis rate between local authorities; and if she will make a statement.

Neil O'Brien: NHS England has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates in targeted areas in England. This includes the assessment of population characteristics such as rurality, ethnicity and age to provide context for any variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support.

Health Services: Rural Areas

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the publication Delivering for rural England: the second report on rural proofing, published 3 September 2022, what specific submissions her Department made to help inform the report; and if she will publish (a) those submissions and (b) the minutes from meetings discussing Departmental contributions to that report.

Dr Caroline Johnson: ‘Delivering for rural England’, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, included contributions from the Department of Health and Social Care. The report set out the Department for Health and Social Care’s approach to rural proofing of health policies, in addition to specific measures to address the challenges of delivering health care in a rural setting. We are unable to provide the specific information requested as it relates to the formulation or development of Government policy.

General Practitioners: Manchester Withington

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of full-time equivalent and fully qualified GPs, excluding GPs in a training grade, that were practising in Manchester Withington constituency (a) on 20 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

Life Expectancy: Newham

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to (a) improve life expectancy and (b) address disparities in life expectancy between different (i) age groups, (ii) ethnic groups and (iii) genders in Newham.

Dr Caroline Johnson: ‘Our plan for patients’, published on 22 September, sets out the immediate priorities to support individuals to live healthier lives, including improving access to health and care services in all areas and preventing ill-health. Further information on measures to address health disparities will be available in due course.The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities works with local system partners in Newham, including providing evidence and intelligence.

Life Expectancy: Stretford and Urmston

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Stretford and Urmston constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made. ‘Our plan for patients’, published on 22 September, sets out the immediate priorities to support individuals to live healthier lives, including improving access to health and care services in all areas and preventing ill-health. Further information on measures to address health disparities will be available in due course.

Mental Health Services: Bolton South East

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Bolton South East constituency.

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Bolton South East constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Bolton South East. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Bolton South East.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Bradford East

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Bradford East constituency.

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Bradford East constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Bradford East. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Bradford East.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

HIV Infection: Nottingham South

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with HIV in Nottingham South constituency in each of the last 5 five years.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with HIV in Wirral South constituency in each of the last 5 five years.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The information is not collected in the format requested.

Midwives: Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of midwives in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency.

Will Quince: NHS England retains oversight of local workforce plans and is updated on vacancy rates. However, recruitment and retention is undertaken at trust level.In 2022, an additional £127 million has been invested in the National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care, including in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. This is in addition to the £95 million invested in 2021 to fund a further 1,200 midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians. The NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of NHS staff by prioritising staff health and wellbeing. In 2022/23, £45 million has been allocated to support the continuation of 40 mental health hubs, the Professional Nurse Advocates programme and expanding the NHS Practitioner Health service.

Mental Health Services: Barking

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Barking constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health service including in Barking. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Barking.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness.

Malnutrition: Wirral South

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in Wirral South constituency.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in Streatham constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made.

General Practitioners: Dulwich and West Norwood

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of GP appointments in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency conducted face-to-face in (a) the last 12 months and (b) 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested. However, in the 12 months to August 2022, 53.8% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face in the South East London Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations.

Mental Health Services: Bristol East

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Bristol East constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health services, including in Bristol East. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Bristol East.

NHS: Bradford East

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Bradford East constituency.

Will Quince: The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Bradford East.

NHS: Chesterfield

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Chesterfield constituency.

Will Quince: The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Chesterfield.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data her Department collects on the provision of local retention initiatives in the North East London ICS area.

Will Quince: NHS England is developing a network of retention leads to share local practice in trusts. This includes Barts Health NHS Trust, where initiatives are being developed which will be shared and deployed in the North East London Integrated Care System area. All trusts have individually tailored retention programmes, including career development and training pathways to retain staff.

Monkeypox: Disease Control

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of naming a person responsible for the UK response to monkeypox.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was established to lead on the planning for, prevention and response to external health threats. As an executive agency of the Department, the UKHSA has leadership of the response to monkeypox, working across Government and the health service, including the devolved administrations and local government.

NHS England: Staff

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Statement of 5 September 2022 on DHSC Update, HCWS291, for what reason a searchable organogram for NHS England was not published by the end of September 2022 as planned; and when she expects that organogram to be published.

Will Quince: NHS England has published an organogram of their senior staff, which is available can be found at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/whos-who-at-nhs-england-exec-group-overview.pdfWe will continue to work with NHS England on the publication of a searchable organogram and with all of our arm’s length bodies to ensure transparency for the public.

Dementia: Yorkshire and the Humber

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of when dementia diagnosis rates will reach the national target of 66.7 per cent in (a) Kingston upon Hull and (b) the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care System.

Neil O'Brien: No specific estimate has been made. In 2021/22, the Government made £17 million available to clinical commissioning groups to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. This included identifying areas of good practice in dementia diagnosis and provision of pre and post diagnostic support, which will be shared with dementia clinical networks and stakeholders.

Dementia: Research

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the additional funding announced as part of the National Dementia Mission will be spent on (a) research, (b) administration and (c) clinical trials.

Neil O'Brien: On 14 August 2022, the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission was launched, supported by a £95 million investment. We are currently developing plans for this Mission and further information on the allocation of this funding will be available in due course.

Mental Health Services: Easington

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Easington constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Easington. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health and eating disorder services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Easington.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness. including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Health Services: Females

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the delivery plan for the Women’s Health Strategy will be published.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to publish an annual report on their progress to deliver on the commitments outlined in the Women’s Health Strategy.

Dr Caroline Johnson: There are no plans to do so. We aim to publish a report on progress in delivering the commitments and the outcomes achieved in three years.

Surgery: Dulwich and West Norwood

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of cancelled operations in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in the past 12 months.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

HIV Infection: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with HIV in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency in each of the last 5 five years.

Dr Caroline Johnson: This information is not collected in the format requested.

NHS: Slough

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Slough.

Will Quince: The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Blackburn Slough.

Multiple Sclerosis: Health Services

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of delegation of specialised commissioning responsibility from NHS England to Integrated Care Systems on multiple sclerosis care.

Will Quince: NHS England retains overall accountability for specialised services which are delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England is currently reviewing which specialised services could be delegated and move to direct management by ICBs, if it is advantageous for these services to be overseen locally. This approach will allow ICBs to work with service providers to deliver the care to meets the needs of the community.By April 2023 we expect that some Integrated Care Boards will have taken on delegated commissioning responsibility for a portion of specialised services. This will be subject to local system and service readiness.

Mental Health Services: Nottingham South

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Nottingham South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.NHS England continues to support local systems, including NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.

NHS: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Tooting constituency.

Will Quince: The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Tooting.

Mental Health Services: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including One Devon Integrated Care System, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.NHS England continues to support local systems, including One Devon Integrated Care System, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.

Surgery: York

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for elective surgeries in (a) York and (b) York Central constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ outlines how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in York. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels. A proportion of this funding will be invested in workforce capacity and training and we have committed to invest £5.9 billion for new beds, equipment and technology.The target to eliminate waiting times of two years or more for elective procedures was met in July 2022 and we aim to eliminate waiting time of eighteen months or more by April 2023. This will be achieved through increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand choices made regarding their care.

Mental Health Services: Washington and Sunderland West

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of mental health specialists in Washington and Sunderland West constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The NHS Long Term Plan stated the aim of increasing the mental health workforce in England by an additional 27,000 professionals by 2023/24. NHS England and Health Education England are working with local integrated care systems, including North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, to confirm plans for service models, supply, retention and recruitment until 2024.NHS England continues to support local systems, including North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, to develop tailored health and wellbeing offers to meet the needs of the local mental health workforce. This includes mental health hubs in each integrated care system and occupational health services which are being supported through the Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing national programme.

Department of Health and Social Care: Consultants

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June to Question 24604, how much her Department spent on external recruitment consultants in 2021.

Will Quince: The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Mental Health Services: Sunderland Central

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Sunderland Central constituency.

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Sunderland Central constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Sunderland Central. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health and eating disorder services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Sunderland Central.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness. including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Hospitals: Generators

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential (a) health and (b) environmental merits of NHS hospitals using sustainable hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel in their back-up generators.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of NHS estates moving from using fossil fuel diesel to hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel on (a) public health and (b) air quality.

Will Quince: There are no plans to make a specific assessment. The National Health Service regularly assesses the viability of new technologies to reduce costs and environmental impact.

NHS: Digital Technology

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to advance the use of digital and technology across the NHS.

Will Quince: The strategy ‘Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data’ committed to advance the use of digital and technology in the National Health Service. In addition, ‘A plan for digital health and social care’, published in June, outlined a £2 billion investment to digitise the NHS and at least £150 million to support digital transformation in social care.We are also enabling frontline clinicians to deliver care efficiently, effectively and safely through Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems. By December 2023, 90% of NHS trusts should have EPRs in place and 100% by March 2025. We are utilising the NHS App to allow people to receive more personalised services. ‘Our plan for patients’, published in September 2022, also committed to support the NHS to maximise the use of data and digital technologies.

Health Services: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times she has met with the Women’s Health Ambassador since their appointment in 2022.

Dr Caroline Johnson: There have been no specific meetings with the Women’s Health Ambassador.

General Practitioners: Chesterfield

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE Fully qualified GPs excluding GPs in Training Grade practicing in Chesterfield constituency (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

Gender Recognition: Prescriptions

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of guidelines available to GPs on offering bridging prescriptions to transgender patients while they await specialist treatment.

Dr Caroline Johnson: A recent assessment has not been made. The General Medical Council has made information available for general practitioners on offering bridging prescriptions to adult transgender patients.

General Practitioners: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Tooting.

Will Quince: On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Tooting. NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs who had been previously working in North East London ICS area have left the profession in the last three years.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

General Practitioners: Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

General Practitioners: Exeter

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE fully qualified GPs (excluding GPs in Training Grade) practicing in Exeter (a) as of 19 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

Maternity Services: Finance

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £127 million announced by the Government on 24 March 2022 to support the maternity NHS workforce and increase neonatal care has been allocated.

Dr Caroline Johnson: We have allocated £45 million to neonatal capital funding projects over the next three years. This will fund nine schemes in five regions with a bespoke approach based on the value of the capital scheme. We are also allocating £50 million for staffing in the second half of 2022/23 and in 2023/24. Trusts were invited to develop plans to bid for resources for obstetric leadership capacity, bereavement midwives and maternity support workers, with other funding being allocated to projects such as return to midwifery programmes and international recruitment.Operational Delivery Networks have worked with trusts to develop plans for the workforce in neonatal services. Allocations have been agreed and funding for 2022/23 will be released in November with further allocations in early 2023/24. The remaining funding has been used for other projects to improve the safety and personalisation of perinatal care. These include increasing funding to Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems, the establishment of the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme and initiatives to improve staff retention in maternity services.

General Practitioners: Manchester Withington

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP appointments in Manchester Withington constituency were conducted face-to-face in (a) the last 12 months and (b) in 2013.

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP appointments there were in Manchester Withington constituency in (a) the last 12 months and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested. In the 12 months to August 2022, there were 15.07 million general practice appointments in the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Of these, 59.6% were conducted face-to-face.

General Practitioners: Nottingham East

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken (a) to increase the number of pre-booked appointments with GPs available in Nottingham East constituency and (b) to help ensure that GP practices offer pre-booked appointments alongside same day appointments.

Will Quince: We are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024, by increasing and diversifying the workforce.General practitioner practices are responsible for managing appointment booking systems to meet the needs of patients. In the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System area, in August 2022, 43% of appointments took place on the same day they were booked and 79.2% within two weeks, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Practices in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are offering pre-booked appointments as well as same day appointments.

Vaccination

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when her Department will publish the Government’s Vaccine Strategy.

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when her Department will publish the Government's Vaccine Strategy.

Dr Caroline Johnson: Development of a vaccine strategy remains under review given the evolving understanding from the COVID-19 vaccination programme and the existing flu and routine immunisation programmes.

General Practitioners: Bradford South

Judith Cummins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Bradford South constituency.

Will Quince: On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Bradford South. NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.

General Practitioners: Bradford East

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Bradford East constituency.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Bradford East. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

General Practitioners: Streatham

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Streatham constituency.

Will Quince: On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Streatham. NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.

Dental Services: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the NHS dentist provision in Tooting constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Tooting.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

General Practitioners: Chesterfield

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP practices open in Chesterfield constituency (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: In September 2013, there were 12 practices registered in Chesterfield, with nine practices registered in October 2022.Practices close for a variety of reasons, including practice mergers or retirement. A reduction in practice numbers does not indicate a reduction in the quality of care. When a practice closes, patients are informed and advised to register at another local practice of their choice. Practices and commissioners must put in place appropriate measures to ensure that affected patients have access to general practitioner services.

Perinatal Mortality: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in Worsley and Eccles South constituency.

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in Nottingham South constituency.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in Wirral South constituency.

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in Bradford East constituency.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in (a) York and (b) York Central constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made. The Government’s national maternity safety ambition aims to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries in babies occurring during or soon after birth, by 2025. Since 2010, the rate of stillbirths has reduced by 19.3%, the rate of neonatal mortality for babies born over 24 weeks gestational age of viability has reduced by 36% and maternal mortality has reduced by 17%.We have introduced targeted interventions to accelerate progress, such as the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle and the Brain Injury Reduction Programme. NHS England has also invested £127 million in National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care. This is in addition to the £95 million investment made in 2021 to fund the establishment of a further 1,200 midwifery and 100 consultant obstetrician posts. NHS England is offering funding and support to trusts to recruit an additional 300 to 500 overseas midwives in the next 12 months.

Pharmacy: Staff

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the size of the community pharmacy workforce on the level of pressure on NHS services.

Will Quince: Data from Health Education England’s community pharmacy workforce survey indicates that in 2021 there were 27,406 full time equivalent pharmacists working in community pharmacy, an 18% increase from 2017. Health Education England’s latest annual community pharmacy workforce survey is underway and the Department and NHS England will continue to monitor the pharmacy workforce in all settings.The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 commits £2.592 billion per year to community pharmacy and sets out how community pharmacy will be more integrated into the National Health Service, deliver more clinical services and provide treatment and advice for minor illnesses. On 22 September, we announced the agreement with the sector for the remainder of the five-year deal, which includes a further one-off investment of £100 million. This funding enables community pharmacists to further expand the range of clinical services offered, including managing and initiating contraception and providing extra support for patients newly prescribed antidepressants. In addition, urgent and emergency care settings will be able to refer patients to a community pharmacist for a minor illness consultation or an urgent medicine supply.

Dental Services: York

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental surgeries are currently admitting new NHS patients in (a) York and (b) York Central constituency.

Will Quince: This information is not currently collected centrally. The measures announced on 19 July to improve National Health Service dentistry and in ‘Our plan for patients’ include a proposed requirement for NHS dental practices to update NHS.UK profiles at least every 90 days to inform the public on whether practices are accepting new patients. These changes will come into effect shortly and compliance will be monitored.NHS Digital has launched email campaigns encouraging dental practices to keep these profiles up to date and is delivering improvements to ensure that updating this information is easier for practices.

Health: Bolton South East

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of health inequalities in Bolton South East constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific estimate has been made.

Life Expectancy: Nottingham South

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Nottingham South constituency.

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Wirral South constituency.

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Bradford East constituency.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of healthy life expectancy in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency.

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of healthy life expectancy in Leeds North West constituency.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of life expectancy in Streatham constituency.

James Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of healthy life expectancy in Ealing North constituency.

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of healthy life expectancy in Liverpool Wavertree constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made. ‘Our plan for patients’, published on 22 September, sets out the immediate priorities to support individuals to live healthier lives, including improving access to health and care services in all areas and preventing ill-health. Further information on measures to address health disparities will be available in due course.

General Practitioners: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Tooting constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in General Practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Tooting. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Tooting.

General Practitioners: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of full time equivalent fully qualified GPs, excluding GPs who are in a training grade, practicing in Leeds North West constituency (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

General Practitioners: Birmingham Selly Oak

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Birmingham, Selly Oak constituency..

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Birmingham Selly Oak. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

General Practitioners: Ilford North

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP surgeries were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in the Ilford North constituency as of October 2022.

Will Quince: In October 2022, 16 or 100% of general practitioner practice locations in the Ilford North constituency are currently rated by the Care Quality Commission as ‘good’ overall.

General Practitioners: Birmingham Selly Oak

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP practices open in Birmingham, Selly Oak (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: In September 2013, there were 22 practices registered in Birmingham, Selly Oak, with 15 practices registered in October 2022.Practices close for a variety of reasons, including practice mergers or retirement. A reduction in practice numbers does not indicate a reduction in the quality of care. When a practice closes, patients are informed and advised to register at another local practice of their choice. Practices and commissioners must put in place appropriate measures to ensure that affected patients have access to general practitioner services.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her department is taking to improve GP retention in the North East London ICS area.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England and Health Education England to increase recruitment in the general practice workforce in England, including in North East London, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, in addition to continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

Breast Cancer: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Tooting constituency.

Will Quince: The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.National Health Service (NHS) breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.

Breast Cancer: Birmingham Selly Oak

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Birmingham, Selly Oak constituency..

Will Quince: The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.National Health Service (NHS) breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.

General Practitioners: Tooting

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Tooting constituency.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Tooting. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

Breast Cancer: Warrington North

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Warrington North constituency.

Will Quince: The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.

Diabetes: Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The following table shows the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency in each year from 2016 to 2020, by diabetes type. Type 1Type 2 and other201630380201725430201835490201925480202025465 Source: National Diabetes Audit (NDA)Notes:A person may have more than one diabetes diagnosis within the NDA. In this case, an algorithm is used to derive the best diagnosis date and diabetes type for each person.Disclosure control has been applied to all figures, as per the NDA publication – all numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, unless the number is 1 to 7, in which case it is rounded to ‘5’.Diabetes type is reported as ‘type 1’ and ‘type 2 and other’ within the NDA. ‘Type 1’ includes where a person is recorded as having type 1 diabetes in the NDA. ‘Type 2 and other’ includes where a person is recorded as having type 2 diabetes, Maturity-onset Diabetes of the Young, other or non-specified diabetes in the NDA.

General Practitioners: Warrington North

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP surgeries were rated as good by the Care and Quality Commission in Warrington North constituency as of 1 October 2022.

Will Quince: As of 3 October, 12 or 92.3% of general practitioner surgeries in Warrington North were rated as ‘good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission.

Dental Services: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of (a) four and (b) 11 were admitted to hospital for a tooth extraction due to decay in Worsley and Eccles South constituency in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: This information is not held in the format requested.

General Practitioners: City of Durham

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in the City of Durham constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in City of Durham. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in City of Durham.

General Practitioners: Birmingham Selly Oak

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE Fully qualified GPs excluding GPs in Training Grade practicing in Birmingham, Selly Oak constituency (a) on 18 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

General Practitioners: Exeter

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP appointments in Exeter constituency (a) in the last 12 months and (b) in 2013.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of GP appointments in Exeter conducted face-to-face in (a) the last 12 months and (b) 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested. In the 12 months to August 2022, there were 8.16 million general practice appointments in the NHS Devon Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Of these, 62.5% were conducted face-to-face.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2022 to Question 59947 on General Practitioners: Greater London, how many NHS GPs there were by (a) clinical commissioning group and (b) NHS Trust in London in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: This information is not held in the format requested. However, the following table shows the number of full time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified doctors in general practice in each London integrated care board (ICB) in June of each year from 2018 to 2022. June 2018June 2019June 2020June 2021June 2022South East London852861861878858North East London982979969968950North Central London746758756765740North West London1,1191,1271,0961,1331,088South West London828834822816812 Notes:Data includes estimates for practices which did not provide fully valid staff records.FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In GPs in Training Grade contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours and in this table these FTEs have been converted to the standard Workforce Minimum Data Set measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours for consistency.Figures shown do not include staff working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres, walk-in centres and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units.Figures are produced against the regional hierarchy as at 1 July 2022.

General Practitioners: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP practices that were open in Leeds North West constituency (a) on the most recent date for which data is available and (b) in 2013.

Will Quince: In September 2013, there were 12 practices registered in Leeds North West, with 11 practices registered in October 2022.Practices close for a variety of reasons, including practice mergers or retirement. A reduction in practice numbers does not indicate a reduction in the quality of care. When a practice closes, patients are informed and advised to register at another local practice of their choice. Practices and commissioners must put in place appropriate measures to ensure that affected patients have access to general practitioner services.

General Practitioners: Wirral West

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Wirral West constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Wirral West. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Wirral West.

Medical Equipment: Power Failures

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that people who use life-saving medical equipment at home would be able to continue to use that equipment in the event of an energy blackout.

Will Quince: The Department continues to work with NHS England and the adult social care sector to provide support to individuals with medical equipment at home to maintain their health care in the event of an energy blackout.

General Practitioners: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Worsley and Eccles South constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Worsley and Eccles South. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Worsley and Eccles South.

Heart Diseases: Medical Treatments

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to issue a Preliminary Policy Proposition on secondary mitral regurgitation for consultation.

Will Quince: NHS England has received a preliminary policy proposition for Transcatheter Edge to Edge Repair of the mitral valve (Percutaneous Mitral Valve Leaflet Repair) for Secondary Mitral Regurgitation in Adults. Following a clinical panel consideration, a clinical evidence review has been commissioned. This will inform the basis for a public consultation should it be required.

Dental Services: Exeter

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of (a) four and (b) 11 were admitted to hospital for a tooth extraction due to decay in Exeter constituency in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: This information is not held in the format requested.

Dementia: Screening

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to provide additional resources to GP practices in deprived areas to increase dementia screening rates.

Will Quince: We committed an additional £1.5 billion for general practice until 2023/24 for additional staff to create a further 50 million general practice appointments through increasing and diversifying the workforce. This is in addition to a £4.5 billion real terms annual increase for primary and community care by 2023/24. The global sum allocation formula is designed to ensure that resources are directed to practices based on an estimate of patient workloads and unavoidable practice costs.NHS England is working with general practice IT system providers to reproduce the Dementia Quality Toolkit (DQT) using SNOMED coding. The DQT includes system searches which can be used by general practitioners to identify patients whose records suggest that they may have dementia but do not have a recorded dementia diagnosis. Publication of the Toolkit is anticipated by April 2023.

General Practitioners: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in Garston and Halewood. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

Care Homes: Staff

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to (a) intervene in the market for agency care workers and (b) reduce the cost of employing care staff.

Neil O'Brien: There are no plans to do so. The majority of care workers, including agency care workers, are employed by private sector providers who set their pay, independently of central Government. Local authorities work with care providers to determine fee rates, which should take account of wage costs based on local market conditions.

Dental Services: Wirral West

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Wirral West constituency.

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the NHS dentist provision in Wirral West constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Wirral West.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Care Homes: Sunderland Central

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Sunderland Central constituency since 2010.

Neil O'Brien: Since April 2010, 30 care homes in Sunderland Central constituency have been deactivated. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Care Homes: Slough

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Slough constituency.

Neil O'Brien: Since 2010, 12 care homes in the Slough constituency have been deactivated. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Dental Services: County Durham

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the availability of NHS dentistry in (a) City of Durham constituency and (b) County Durham.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in County Durham.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Care Homes: Worsley and Eccles South

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Worsley and Eccles South constituency since 2019.

Neil O'Brien: There have been no care home closures in the Worsley and Eccles South constituency since 2019. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Dental Services: Luton South

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Luton South constituency.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of NHS dentist provision in Luton South constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Luton South.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Dental Services: Shropshire

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of NHS dental (a) coverage and (b) provision in Shropshire.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Shropshire.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

General Practitioners: Walsall South

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Walsall South constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Walsall South. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Walsall South.

Dental Services: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of NHS dentist provision in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Garston and Halewood.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Dental Services: Bristol East

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of NHS dentist provision in Bristol East constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Bristol East.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Diabetes: Lancaster and Fleetwood

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were diagnosed with diabetes in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency in each of the last five years.

Will Quince: The following table shows the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency in each year from 2016 to 2020, by diabetes type. Type 1Type 2 and other201620260201710235201810255201910300202015230 Source: National Diabetes Audit (NDA)Notes:A person may have more than one diabetes diagnosis within the NDA. In this analysis an algorithm is used to derive the best diagnosis date and diabetes type for each person.Disclosure control has been applied to all figures, as per the NDA publication. All numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, unless the number is 1 to 7, in which case it is rounded to ‘5’.Diabetes type is reported as ‘type 1’ and ‘type 2 and other’ within the NDA. ‘type Type 1’ includes where a person is recorded as having type 1 diabetes in the NDA. ‘Type 2 and other’ includes where a person is recorded as having type 2 diabetes, Maturity-onset Diabetes of the Young, other or non-specified diabetes in the NDA.

General Practitioners: Recruitment

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to meet its target of recruiting an additional 6,000 GPs by 2025.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England and Health Education England to increase recruitment in the general practitioner (GP) workforce, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. We have also increased the number of GP training places to 4,000 per year. In 2020, the updated GP Contract Framework announced new retention schemes in addition to continued support for existing schemes for the general practice workforce.

NHS: Negligence

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that death caused by clinical negligence in the NHS contributes to improved clinical practice.

Will Quince: The Government has introduced measures to support the National Health Service in England to reduce patient harm and improve the response to harmed patients. This includes a statutory duty of candour which requires all hospital trusts to tell patients if their safety has been compromised and to apologise. This is overseen by the Care Quality Commission which can take enforcement action in cases of non-compliance. We have implemented legal protections for whistle-blowers when safety concerns are raised, in addition to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians in all hospital trusts supported by a National Guardian.We are establishing the Health Services Safety Investigations Body in 2022 as a new independent arm’s length body to conduct safety investigations into the most serious patient safety incidents in the NHS and the independent sector and embed learning. We are implementing medical examiners in the NHS to ensure that all deaths which do not involve a coroner are scrutinised by an independent medical practitioner. This aims to improve the quality and accuracy of the medical certificate for cause of death and provide bereaved families with a guaranteed voice in certifying deaths and an opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns about care.In 2019, we published a the NHS Patient Safety Strategy which is creating a safety and learning culture in the NHS to address inequalities in patient safety. We have also established the role of a Patient Safety Commissioner to provide a champion for patients in relation to medicines and medical devices.

Black Country Integrated Care System: General Practitioners

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve GP retention in the Black Country ICS area.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England, including in the Black Country Integrated Care System area. This includes measures to improve recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase the retention of GPs in London.

Will Quince: We are working with NHS England and Health Education England on measures to increase general practitioner (GP) recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.The updated GP Contract Framework in 2020 announced new schemes, in addition to continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, the New to Partnership Payment and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

General Practitioners: Recruitment

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Sum funding for Primary Care Networks in England went unspent for each of the years that the scheme has been operating.

Will Quince: Additional Roles Reimbursement Sum (ARRS) funding allocations are made available for Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to reimburse roles that are defined in the General Practice contract. If left un-used, funding can be re-distributed by the service commissioner to PCNs that can go further and reimburse more members of staff.Underspends in the ARRS are reported in ‘Investment in General Practice’. This shows a £164 million underspend in the ARRS in 2020/2021. Information for subsequent years will be available in future publications of ‘Investment in General Practice’.As a new programme, there was generous headroom in the ARRS funding that was available to draw down in earlier years, this allowed for recruitment of more expensive roles, or higher recruitment earlier in the year leading to higher overall costs.

General Practitioners: Ellesmere Port and Neston

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Ellesmere Port and Neston. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Ellesmere Port and Neston.

General Practitioners: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP surgeries are currently rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Leeds North West constituency.

Will Quince: There are currently eight or 72.7% of general practitioner practice locations in the Leeds North West constituency rated by the Care Quality Commission as ‘good’ overall.

Dental Services

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services; and what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the NHS dentist provision in in Ellesmere Port and Neston constituency.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Ellesmere Port and Neston.The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.

Infectious Diseases: Integrated Care Systems

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Integrated Care Systems will be required to set out plans to support quality improvement in how they screen and monitor for infections, including sepsis and antimicrobial-resistant infections.

Will Quince: All types of Integrated care systems are required to comply with the contractual requirements, such as the NHS Standard Contract, which set out plans to support quality improvement through monitoring and screening for infections, including sepsis and resistant infections.

General Practitioners: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of GP appointments in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency in the last 12 months; and what that number was in 2013.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of GP appointments in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport conducted face-to-face in the past 12 months; and what that figure was in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not held in the format requested. In the 12 months to August 2022, there were 8.16 million general practice appointments in the NHS Devon Integrated Care System area, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Of these, 62.5% of these were conducted face-to-face.On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.

General Practitioners: Ilford North

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Ilford North constituency.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Ilford North. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Ilford North.

Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a tiered system of redress for the Vaccine Damages Payment Scheme to support those with less than 60% disability from an adverse vaccination reaction.

Will Quince: The Government is prioritising the improvement of the current Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme to ensure claimants receive outcomes as quickly as possible. Consideration of future reforms will be made as further evidence emerges, particularly on COVID-19 vaccine claims. Other Government support remains available for those with a disability or long-term health condition, including Statutory Sick Pay, Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Personal Independence Payments.

Breast Cancer: Bermondsey and Old Southwark

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency.

Will Quince: The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.

General Practitioners: Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of FTE fully qualified GPs, practicing in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency today; and what that number was in 2013.

Will Quince: This information is not collected in the format requested.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP surgeries have closed in (a) Lewisham East constituency, (b) the London Borough of Lewisham and (c) Greater London since 2017.

Will Quince: Since 2017, one practice has closed in the Lewisham East constituency and five practices have closed in Lewisham due to mergers. The information requested on closures in Greater London is not held centrally.Practices close for a variety of reasons, including mergers or retirement. A reduction in practice numbers does not mean a reduction in the quality of care. When a practice does close, patients are informed and advised to register at another local practice of their choice.

Malnutrition

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what methods her Department uses to monitor trends in the levels of malnutrition across the population in England.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made.

Malnutrition: West Ham

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of malnutrition in West Ham constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made.

Mental Health Services: Garston and Halewood

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Garston and Halewood constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Garston and Halewood. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Garston and Halewood. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Health Services: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to appoint a deputy Women’s Health Ambassador; and if she will set out a timeline of their appointment.

Dr Caroline Johnson: An announcement will be made in due course.

Females: Coronavirus

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of covid-19 on women's (a) reproductive and (b) menstrual health.

Dr Caroline Johnson: No specific assessment has been made. However, the Women's Health Strategy for England committed to commission a new survey on women's reproductive health experiences every two years, with the first commencing in 2022. The survey will gather data on women's experiences in all areas of reproductive health, including menstrual health, contraception, pregnancy planning and menopause.The Public Health Policy Research Unit is also undertaking a study to understand the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s access and attitudes to contraception in England. This project has not yet completed and is expected to report in April 2023.

Monkeypox: Genito-urinary Medicine

Steve Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address the displaced activity that monkeypox has caused within the sexual health services.

Steve Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address displaced access to (a) PrEP, (b) HIV services, (c) family planning services and (d) contraception services within the NHS.

Steve Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure there is no reduction in funding for sexual health budgets due to the Sexual Health tariff and reduced mainstream Sexual Health activity caused by the monkepox outbreak.

Dr Caroline Johnson: We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.

Meningitis: Vaccination

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps she has taken to increase uptake of the MenB vaccination.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Department works with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to increase uptake in all routine immunisation programmes. NHS England has issued communications to general practitioner practices to maximise efforts to increase coverage of MenB vaccination during early childhood. The NHS Immunisations Strategy is also exploring options to improve uptake and coverage of all National Health Service routine immunisation programmes, including MenB.

Food: Marketing

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to help ensure that the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulation 2021 does not have a negative impact on businesses.

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she will take to ensure restrictions on placement promotions for foods high in fat, salt and sugar do not increase the cost of goods for consumers experiencing the rising cost of living.

Dr Caroline Johnson: We recognise the need to balance implications costs and benefits to businesses individuals, society and the National Health Service. Following consultation, a number of exemptions were made to ease the impact on businesses where appropriate. The restrictions only apply to products that are high in fat, salt or sugar and are assessed as ‘less healthy’, retailers are free to promote products that are healthier and that are not deemed in scope of the policy.The location restrictions on promotions which came into force on 1 October are expected to accrue health benefits of over £57 billion and provide NHS savings of over £4 billion, over the next 25 years. In light of the unprecedented global economic situation, we have delayed the implementation of the volume price promotions by 12-months. These restrictions will come into force in October 2023.

Monkeypox: Vaccination

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for the delivery of the 250,000 Imvanex doses needed to fulfil the monkeypox vaccination programme.

Dr Caroline Johnson: Over 150,000 doses of the vaccines used for monkeypox have been procured by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with the final deliveries of vaccine expected by the end of October 2022. The UKHSA’s expert advice, endorsed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, is to offer two vaccine doses to a defined high-risk cohort. This cohort is comprised of 111,000 individuals in the United Kingdom and we have sufficient stock to vaccinate the eligible cohort.

Mental Health Services: Jarrow

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Jarrow constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health services, including in Jarrow. Improved access to general practice will expand routes into mental health care, as demonstrated through the A, B, C, D priorities.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Jarrow.

Chief Medical Officer: Annual Reports

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Chief Medical Office plans to publish his annual report for 2022.

Dr Caroline Johnson: The Chief Medical Officer's 2022 annual report will be published by the end of the year.

Mental Health Services: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Eltham

Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Eltham constituency.

Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Eltham constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Eltham. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Eltham. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Nottingham South

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Nottingham South constituency.

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Nottingham South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Nottingham South. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Nottingham South.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough constituency.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough Constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Streatham

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Streatham constituency.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Streatham constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Streatham. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Streatham.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Stretford and Urmston

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Stretford and Urmston constituency.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Stretford and Urmston constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Stretford and Urmston. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Stretford and Urmston.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Lancaster and Fleetwood

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Lancaster and Fleetwood. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Lancaster and Fleetwood.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Malnutrition

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 October to Question 60971 on malnutrition, for what reasons her Department have not made an assessment of trends in the levels of malnutrition in the UK; and if her Department will make an assessment of those trends.

Dr Caroline Johnson: There are no current plans to make an assessment of trends in malnutrition in the United Kingdom, as it is a devolved matter. NHS Digital publishes data on hospital admissions in England for scurvy, rickets and malnutrition between 2007/08 and 2021/22, which is available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/supplementary-information/2022/scurvy-rickets-and-malnutrition-hospital-admissions-by-age-2007-08-to-2021-22-provisional

Mental Health Services: Stockton North

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Stockton North constituency.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Stockton North constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Stockton North. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Stockton North.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Hove

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Hove constituency.

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Hove constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Hove. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Exeter

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Exeter constituency.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Exeter constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Exeter. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Putney

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Putney constituency.

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Putney constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Putney. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Portsmouth South

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Portsmouth South constituency.

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Portsmouth South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Portsmouth South. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Eating Disorders: Chesterfield

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Chesterfield constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Chesterfield. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Chesterfield

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Chesterfield.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Chesterfield. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Walsall South. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Bermondsey and Old Southwark

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency.

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Bermondsey and Old Southwark.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Eating Disorders: Wirral South

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Wirral South constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Wirral South. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Wirral South. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Eating Disorders: Slough

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Slough constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our Plan for Patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Slough. Making it easier to access general practice through our ABCD priorities will expand this route as a gateway to mental health care. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand these services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Slough. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness, including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Mental Health Services: Ilford North

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Ilford North constituency.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support young people with eating disorders in Ilford North constituency.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health and eating disorder services, including in Ilford North. Improved access to general practice will expand routes into mental health care, as demonstrated through the A, B, C, D priorities.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health and eating disorder services for adults, children and young people in England, including in Ilford North.We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness. including eating disorders, by 2023/24 and an additional £53 million per year in children and young people's community eating disorder services to increase capacity in the 70 community eating disorder teams.

Care Homes: Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of care homes were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency as of the most recent date for which data is available.

Neil O'Brien: As at 12 October 2022, 34 or 65.4% of care homes in the Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency are rated by the Care Quality Commission as ‘good’ overall.

Care Homes: Liverpool Wavertree

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Liverpool Wavertree constituency since May 2015.

Neil O'Brien: Since May 2015, nine care homes have been deactivated in Liverpool Wavertree. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Care Homes: Dulwich and West Norwood

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of residential care homes that have closed in Dulwich and West Norwood constituency since 2015.

Neil O'Brien: Since 2015, two nursing homes and eight residential homes have been ‘deactivated’ in Dulwich and West Norwood. The Care Quality Commission records care homes which have closed as ‘deactivated’. The ‘deactivated’ locations exclude care homes where the provider continues to operate under a new, separate registration. This could be due to a legal entity change or a change in the provider.

Memory Clinics: Staff

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of additional members of staff Memory Assessment Services will require to (a) clear the backlog of referrals to Memory Assessment Services and (b) recover the dementia diagnosis rate in England to the national target rate of 66.7%.

Neil O'Brien: No specific estimate has been made.

Dementia: Research

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is her Department's policy to double dementia research funding.

Neil O'Brien: We are continuing to develop our long term plans for dementia, including dementia research.

Department for Education

Pre-school Education: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has provided recent additional support to maintained nursery schools in Stockport constituency in the context of rising inflation.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department knows that the early years sector is facing economic challenges, similar to those being faced across the country. The department has already announced additional funding of £160 million in 2022/23, £180 million in 2023/24 and £170 million in 2024/25, compared to the 2021/22 financial year, for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers. This includes all maintained nursery schools.The department has also confirmed the continuation of maintained nursery school (MNS) supplementary funding throughout the spending review period, providing the sector with long-term certainty. More recently it has been announced that the department will be investing an additional £10 million into MNS supplementary funding from 2023/24, and have consulted on proposals to reform the distribution of this funding to ensure that it is being shared more evenly across all local authorities with MNSs. Our proposals mean that the vast majority of local authorities, including Stockport, will see their supplementary funding hourly rate increase, with a more generous increase for the lowest funded. We will respond to the consultation and publish final funding rates for 2023/24 this autumn. This is on top of the increase for this year, where we have increased the MNS supplementary hourly rate by 3.5%, equivalent to the increase in the 3 and 4-year-old hourly funding rates.Further, the government recognises the impact rising energy prices can have on businesses, voluntary sector or public organisations of all sizes. On 21 September 2022, the former Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced a new Energy Bill Relief Scheme to support eligible schools and businesses large and small, including early years providers and maintained nursery schools, with their energy costs over the winter. The Chancellor has made clear this will continue from now until April 2023.

Ofsted: Staff

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Ofsted inspectors, among those completing inspections on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills, have (a) more than six months, (b) more than 12 months, (c) more than 24 months and (d) more than five years experience, as such an inspector in their main remit, broken down by their main remit of inspection for (i) education, learning and skills, (ii) early years and (iii) social care.

Kelly Tolhurst: This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Schools: Suicide

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

Kelly Tolhurst: All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative. This includes websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that if teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.

Ministry of Justice

Veterans: Evictions

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of veterans who have been evicted in each month of 2022.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of veterans who have had their homes repossessed in each month of 2022.

Gareth Johnson: The Ministry of Justice does not collect or hold any data on the occupation or previous occupations of defendants at any stage of possession proceedings up to and including eviction, nor whether parties to possession proceedings have served in the armed forces.Official published statistics on possession volumes can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics.CORE Social Housing Lettings data collected by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities provides information on new social housing lettings in England, including the percentage of veterans granted a new tenancy after being evicted from their previous home. This data is provided below.Reason for leaving last settled home (where known) given by households in new social housing lettings, 2020/21Source: CORE Social Housing LettingsReason for leaving last settled homeFormerly served in armed forces as a regular or reservist (% of all new social housing lettings to this group)Never served in armed forces (% of all new social housing lettings to this group)End of Assured shorthold tenancy- on a ‘no fault’ basis3.6%3.2%End of Assured shorthold tenancy -eviction, tenant at fault0.7%0.3%End of Fixed Term tenancy - eviction, tenant at fault0.1%0.2%End of Fixed Term tenancy - on a ‘no fault’ basis2.2%1.9%

Children: Maintenance

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of correspondence to the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre was responded to within (a) 20 (b) 40 and (c) 60 or more working days in the latest period for which data is available.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many members of staff at the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre have been assigned to handle public correspondence in each year since 2015.

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of claims made against parents through Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders by the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre are successful.

Gareth Johnson: We do not hold the information requested regarding what proportion of correspondence to the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre was responded to within the working days requested. HMCTS does not collect data on response times.We do not hold the information requested regarding how many members of staff at the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre have been assigned to handle public correspondence in each year since 2015. Staff in the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centres have mixed roles and are not employed purely to handle public correspondence. They rotate across all tasks to best meet the needs of the service on a flexible and ever-changing basis.We do not hold the information requested regarding what proportion of claims made against parents through Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders by the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre are successful. HMCTS does not collect data on the outcome of cases which would allow for such an analysis.

Prisons: Security

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of X-ray scanners deployed to prevent illegal items entering prisons; and whether he plans to roll these out to all prisons.

Rob Butler: We have invested £100m to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.Since 2020, we have installed an additional 75 x-ray body scanners, bringing the total to 97 and providing coverage to the entire closed male estate. As of April 2022, there have been approximately 20,000 positive indications recorded.A full evaluation of our security investments is underway and will be published in 2023. Further deployment of x-ray body scanners across the prison estate will be informed by the results of this evaluation.

Prisoners: Disclosure of Information

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving a sentence for murder or manslaughter had an indictment for rape or sexual assault that has been ordered to lie on file.

Rob Butler: As at 30 June 2022, there were 6,731 prisoners serving a sentence for murder or manslaughter. Manual checks of paper records for each prisoner would be required to provide the answer to this question, which can be achieved only at disproportionate cost.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Australia: Visits Abroad

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 60981 on Australia: Visits Abroad, for what reason no costs were declared for (a) accommodation, (b) meals and (c) other expenses excluding air travel for his predecessor’s visit in the transparency data entitled FCDO ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, January to March 2022, published by his Department on 29 September 2022; and how any such costs were met for that visit.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 60982 on Lithuania and Belgium: Visits Abroad, for what reason no costs were declared for (a) accommodation, (b) meals and (c) other expenses excluding air travel for his predecessor’s visit in the transparency data entitled FCDO ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, January to March 2022, published by his Department on 29 September 2022; and how any such costs were met for that visit.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 60984 on Poland: Visits Abroad, for what reason no costs were declared for (a) accommodation, (b) meals and (c) other expenses excluding air travel for his predecessor’s visit in the transparency data entitled FCDO ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, April to June 2022, published by his Department on 29 September 2022; and how any such costs were met for that visit.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 60985 on Belgium: Visits Abroad, for what reason no costs were declared for (a) accommodation, (b) meals and (c) other expenses excluding air travel for his predecessor’s visit in the transparency data entitled FCDO ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, April to June 2022, published by his Department on 29 September 2022; and how any such costs were met for that visit.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 60986 on Netherlands: Visits Abroad, for what reason no costs were declared for (a) accommodation, (b) meals and (c) other expenses excluding air travel for his predecessor’s visit in the transparency data entitled FCDO ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, April to June 2022, published by his Department on 29 September 2022; and how any such costs were met for that visit.

Jesse Norman: All FCDO transparency and freedom of information releases are published on gov.uk. Transparency data has been published in this way since 2009/2010. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-from-the-prime-minister-on-government-transparency-and-open-data.It is standard practice across government to publish total overseas travel cost figures for Ministers. These can be found in our published Quarterly Transparency Returns.

Clothing: Manufacturing Industries

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans his Department has to promote better working conditions and employment rights in the fashion industry abroad.

Leo Docherty: The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses, including the fashion industry, to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UN Guiding Principles. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act places a requirement on businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more, to publish an annual modern slavery statement setting out the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their supply chains. The "Work in Freedom" programme has supported 433,650 women and girls in the garment sector in South Asia, Lebanon and Jordan with training and access to services since 2018.

Bangladesh: Mortality Rates

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the maternal mortality rate in Bangladesh.

Leo Docherty: The FCDO's 'Better Health in Bangladesh Programme' provides financial and technical assistance to the Government of Bangladesh's national health sector programme. The programme helps to ensure that women have access to safe maternal care in Bangladesh through interventions including post abortion care, midwifery training, and technical assistance to strengthen Bangladesh's health system. It also aims to combat issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and ending preventable deaths of mothers and new-borns. In targeted districts of Bangladesh, the FCDO tests new methods of basic emergency obstetric care. The programme also provides technical health assistance to improve quality midwifery education in Bangladesh. The programme has helped deliver over 85,000 babies, provided 818,000 people family planning services, and screened over 630,000 women for cervical cancer.

USA: Military Aid

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his US counterpart on support for the US sending troops to Taiwan to defend against potential Chinese invasion.

Leo Docherty: The UK's longstanding policy on Taiwan has not changed. We consider the Taiwan issue one to be settled peacefully by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait through constructive dialogue, without the threat or use of force or coercion. We are concerned by any activity that risks destabilising the status quo.

Elnaz Rekabi

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Iranian government on the disappearance of Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi.

Leo Docherty: Iran must answer questions about the circumstances of Elnaz Rekabi's departure from South Korea. While it is positive that she has been able to publicly confirm her whereabouts, any pressure put on her is utterly unacceptable. The events of recent weeks in Iran, including the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by the so-called Morality Police, is a shocking reminder of the repression faced by women and girls in Iran. We continue to take action to hold Iran to account for its repression of women's and girls' rights, including sanctioning the Morality Police in its entirety and two of its leaders, and we are working alongside the international community to press Iran to improve its appalling record.

Ministry of Defence

Telecommunications Cables: Seas and Oceans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has detected hostile involvement in the damaging of undersea cables between UK territories since 2019.

James Heappey: Detailing our assessments as to hostile involvement in the damaging of undersea cables would be likely to prejudice the purpose of safeguarding their security and consequently national security. Subsea internet cables are specifically considered in the National Risk Assessment which is kept under review.The most likely cause of damage to subsea cables is by fishing, particularly trawling and other seabed-disturbing activities. The recent incident in the Shetlands has shown that accidental breakage of communications cables is not unknown and mechanisms to repair them are well tested.Responsibility for subsea power and telecommunications cables lies with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, respectively.

Armed Forces: International Assistance

Steve Double: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the contribution made by the armed forces to humanitarian and international aid as an addition to the annual Official Development Assistance budget.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) works closely with colleagues across Government to ensure humanitarian and international aid gets to the countries that need it.The MOD supports the FCDO with its Official Development Assistance programme, facilitates the transportation of humanitarian aid to ODA-eligible countries and contributes to cross-government responses to humanitarian crises and natural disasters. This includes our response to natural disasters in the Caribbean region under Operation VENTUS, with a principle focus on support to UK Overseas Territories during the Caribbean Hurricane Season. Most recently in 2022, support has been provided in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the wake of Hurricane FIONA and in the Cayman Islands after Hurricane IAN.

Estonia: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the total annual budget of Operation CABRIT.

James Heappey: The annual budget for Op CABRIT, provided from His Majesty's Treasury's Special Reserve for financial year 2022-23, is £19.1 million.

Telecommunications Cables: Seas and Oceans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to secure undersea cables connecting UK territories from damage and acts of sabotage.

James Heappey: I refer the right. hon Member to the answer I gave on Wednesday 26 October 2022 to Question 68486.Telecommunications Cables: Seas and Oceans (docx, 21.3KB)

Defence Equipment: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the total UK contribution to the European Sky Shield Initiative.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many air defence systems does the UK plan to procure through the European Sky Shield Initiative.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects air defence systems procured through the European Sky Shield Initiative to enter service.

Sarah Atherton: The UK has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) on the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI). This is alongside 14 other European allies, concerning the strengthening of the European pillar associated with NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence. There are no current plans for the UK to procure air defence systems via the ESSI. The in-service dates for ESSI capability solutions have not yet been determined across LoI partners.

China: Armed Forces

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to prevent former RAF pilots from training the Chinese military.

James Heappey: We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People's Liberation Army personnel in the People's Republic of China. All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges - including this one.

Islamic State: Middle East and North Africa

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the potential threat posed by so-called Islamic State to (a) UK security interests and (b) regional stability in the Middle East and North Africa.

James Heappey: Support for Daesh still lingers in localised communities across the Middle East and North Africa. The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is the UK's independent centre for analysis and assessment of terrorism and keeps the UK national threat level under constant review. The UK efforts on Operation Shader are part of a wider strategy to promote peace and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa. We will continue to be a leading member of the Global Coalition against Daesh.

Ukraine: Military Aid

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of the £2.3bn military aid committed by the Government to Ukraine has been spent.

James Heappey: To date, the Department has committed £1.6 billion of the £2.3 billion set aside from the Treasury Reserves

Telecommunications Cables: Seas and Oceans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to secure undersea cables connecting UK territories from damage and acts of sabotage.

James Heappey: The Ministry of Defence fully recognises the risk from hostile underwater activities to our undersea cable networks, here in the UK and across the world.The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is the lead department for the energy sector, including subsea energy cables. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is the lead department for telecommunications policy, including the security and resilience of telecommunications subsea cables.Accidental damage caused by fishing, particularly trawling and other seabed-disturbing activities remains the most likely risk to subsea cables. Indeed, as the recent incident in the Shetlands has shown, accidental breakage of communications cables is not unknown and mechanisms to repair them are well tested.The Government regards subsea cables as critical to our national and international infrastructure and monitors a variety of risks they face and subsea internet cables are specifically considered in the UK's National Risk Assessment. Detailing security arrangements made to protect such cables from sabotage would be likely to prejudice the purpose of safeguarding their security, and with it national security.

RAF Saxa Vord: Telecommunications Cables

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the damage sustained to the subsea cable to Shetland disrupted a) air defence radar and b) associated radios and data at RAF Saxa Vord.

James Heappey: The damage to the Shetland undersea cable has not impacted radar or radio data transmission to or from Remote Radar Head Saxa Vord.

HMS Prince of Wales: Repairs and Maintenance

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects repairs to HMS Prince of Wales to be completed; and when that ship will be ready for deployment.

Alec Shelbrooke: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 October 2022 to Question number 55091 to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan).Timelines have not yet been determined for repairs to HMS PRINCE OF WALES as investigations to establish the extent of the work required are on-going.HMS Prince of Wales: Repairs and Maintenance (docx, 21.2KB)

Annington Homes

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what key performance indicators are included in the national management contract for housing allocations, repairs and maintenance held by Pinnacle Group for service accommodation managed by Annington Homes.

Alec Shelbrooke: All UK Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties are managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) under a number of contracts within the Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) framework.Repair and maintenance work is handled by the Regional Accommodation Maintenance Service (RAMS) contracts held by Amey and VIVO.Pinnacle hold the National Accommodation Management Service (NAMS) contract. They are responsible for housing allocations and triaging repair and maintenance requests received via their National Service Centre and passing these on to Amey or VIVO.Pinnacle's performance is measured against a total of four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Two are for housing allocations: (1) processing applications and allocating Service Family Accommodation (SFA) within 15 working days, and (2) Overall customer satisfaction, with a further two for their National Service Centre, the (3) percentage of Emergency Response notifications passed to RAMS suppliers within 10 minutes, and (4) percentage of Reactive Maintenance Service Requests correctly triaged and passed to RAMS suppliers.

Department for Work and Pensions

Personal Independence Payment

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for a new claim for the Personal Independence Payment to be (a) processed and (b) paid.

Claire Coutinho: In answer to (a), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) processing times are available as part of the PIP Official Statistics quarterly release. The latest release, with data available to July 2022, is available here: tables-pip-statistics-to-july-2022.ods (live.com). Table 1a contains PIP average processing times for new claims under normal rules We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner and reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department. We always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. In answer to (b), the information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Employment: Musculoskeletal Disorders

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her speech to the Policy Exchange think tank on 13th October 2022, what steps she is taking to support employers to improve their practices related to employees' musculoskeletal health.

Claire Coutinho: Working with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the Musculoskeletal (MSK) Health Toolkit for employers and further education institutions was published on the 18 October 2022. This toolkit was developed in collaboration with the Society of Occupational Medicine and British Society of Rheumatology and encourages employers to support adolescents and young adults with MSK conditions. There are also a range of support products available for employers including the Musculoskeletal health toolkit for employers, which was developed in partnership with Business in the Community and provides practical information for employers of all sizes to address MSK conditions in the workplace for the working age population. We have also recently released an early test version of a new online service to help employers better support disabled people and those with health conditions in the workplace: Support with Employee Health and Disability service.Quality Occupational Health (OH) services also have the potential to prevent work-related illness and avoidable sickness absence, support disabled people and those with ill health conditions to remain in work and support productivity. Following the publication of the response to the Health is Everyone’s Business consultation, we are exploring a number of policy options to increase access to quality and cost effective OH services, whilst ensuring that the market has the capacity to provide the services. We are particularly focusing on improving access to OH for SMEs and the self-employed as evidence suggests that smaller employers are less likely to provide access to OH than larger employers.

Poverty: Children

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the North East Child Poverty Commission entitled Getting the building blocks wrong: Early childhood poverty in the North East, published in September 2022, if he will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the findings on the level of in-work child poverty in (a) the North East and (b) other regions; and if her Department will take steps to help tackle in-work child poverty in the North East.

Alex Burghart: Projecting the impacts of policies on child poverty is very difficult to do accurately – as poverty is dependent on changes for every type of income for the whole population. It is very difficult to isolate the specific impact of one policy and how many people might be moving slightly above or below a threshold that changes over time. Many policies will lead to changes in behaviour (e.g., being incentivised into increasing their earnings) which can also be very difficult to predict. Statistics covering up until financial year ending 2021 on the number of children who are in low-income in the North East and other regions can be found in the annual publication: Children in low income families: local area statistics. Childrenin low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age. To support parents to progress in work, we are extending the support jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes to help them to increase their earnings and move into better paid quality jobs. This new in-work progression offer started to roll-out from April 2022. Once fully rolled out, we estimate that around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on removing barriers to progression such as support with childcare or addressing skills gaps. This new progression offer is in addition to a change the government made last month to the Administrative Earnings Threshold in Universal Credit. By raising the threshold on 26th September 2022, approximately 114,000 more UC claimants on the lowest incomes will benefit from regular work coach support. The Chancellor announced that we would go further and raise the threshold again from January 2023 to expand this support to approximately 120,000 more people.

Social Security Benefits

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the fall in the value of Sterling on the adequacy of the level of (a) Universal Credit and (b) Pension Credit.

Alex Burghart: There is no objective way of deciding what an adequate level of benefit should be as every person has different requirements. Income-related benefit rates are not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure such as food or fuel charges, and beneficiaries are free to spend their benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual commitments, needs and preferences. However, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of State pensions and benefits. The outcome of that review will be announced later this year, and the new rates will enter into force from 10 April 2023.

Poverty: Children

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the North East Child Poverty Commission entitled Getting the building blocks wrong: Early childhood poverty in the North East, published in September 2022, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the conclusions on the risk of poverty faced by (a) families where someone has a disability, (b) lone parent families, (c) families with parents aged under 25 and (d) families in rented homes.

Alex Burghart: Projecting the impacts of policies on income poverty is very difficult to do accurately – as poverty is dependent on changes for every type of income for the whole population. It is very difficult to isolate the specific impact of one policy and how many people might be moving slightly above or below a threshold that changes over time. Many policies will lead to changes in behaviour (e.g. being incentivised into employment) which can also be very difficult to predict. National Statistics on the number and percentage of people in poverty are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Statistics, covering up until 2019/20, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020 The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age. This is in addition to the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances. To further support parents to move into and progress in work, the government provides a range of childcare offers. For more information on what childcare support may be available, we encourage parents to us the helpful Childcare Choices website.

Employment and Support Allowance

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how the £1.3 billion investment over three years in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions announced by her Department in May 2022 will be spent.

Claire Coutinho: This government is committed to helping disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay, and succeed in work. The £1.3 billion will fund the right support in the right place to meet each individual’s needs, with an increased focus on upstream intervention to promote retention and engagement when people fall out of work. This comprises Jobcentre Plus delivered employment support and provision, rolling out successful trials through health and social care settings and working with employers and stakeholders to support people to remain in work Within Jobcentres, on top of existing activity, we’re increasing Work Coach support across England, Scotland and Wales for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance. This will enable disabled people to access employment and wider skills support, and our employment programmes earlier. We have begun to offer this support in one-third of Jobcentres and will roll out wider from 2023 DWP and DHSC continue to work together to support work and health outcomes. This includes expanding employment support within NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) services to the whole of England over this spending review period We will deliver on measures to minimise the risk of ill health related job loss, as set out in the response to the DWP/DHSC consultation Health is Everyone’s Business. We continue to work with small businesses to support them, including delivering a national information and advice service for employers, providing better integrated and tailored guidance on managing health and disability in the workplace.

Employment: Mental Illness

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people with mental illness who take regular absences from work.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure people with mental health problems have access to help in the workplace.

Claire Coutinho: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) offer a range of support for those with mental health problems to stay in and return to work. This includes the Access to Work Mental Health Support Service, and Individual Placement Support for people with common mental health and/or physical health conditions. On 10th October 2022 (World Mental Health Day), we announced the expansion of a joint programme by DWP, DHSC, and NHS England. This extension will spend £122 million to expand the provision of Employment Advisers in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services across England (EAs in IAPT). This voluntary service will recruit an additional 700 employment advisers to support people with common mental health conditions to improve their mental health, whilst also helping them stay in or find work.

Working Hours: Menopause

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of (a) the number employees reducing working hours due to the menopause and (b) the subsequent effect of that on the gender pay gap.

Alex Burghart: The Department does not collect data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours. However, with women over 50 representing the fastest growing segment of the workforce, there are few workplaces where the menopause is not being experienced by staff. The Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July. The national gender pay gap has fallen significantly under this government - and by approximately a quarter in the last decade. In order to continue making progress we need to understand the real barriers faced by everyone in the workplace and ensure everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Older Workers

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help older members of the workforce (a) adapt to and (b) retrain in an evolving job market.

Alex Burghart: As part of the 23 September Growth Plan announcement, the Chancellor announced funding for additional work coach support to over 50s. This will mean more jobseekers across Great Britain receive intensive, tailored support at jobcentres to help them get into, and progress in work, boosting their earnings ahead of retirement. This funding builds on the existing Spending Review settlement of £20m over the next three years for a new enhanced offer for people aged 50 and over to remain in, and return to work.  This Government is committed to adult education and training and the Department for Education has already put in place a wide range of programmes for adults to gain the skills they need for employment, ensuring they have the opportunities to study, upskill and reskill at different points in their life. We invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (£1.34bn in 2022/23), we are ensuring that apprenticeships are responsive to the different needs of individuals, employers, and the economy, including ensuring older people can access apprenticeships to re-train or upskill. We have also launched the £2.4b National Skills Fund, which is a significant investment to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind. From 2025 will also introduce a lifelong loan entitlement, enabling more flexible and modular study across higher and further education.

Employment Schemes: Older Workers

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to replace the provision provided to people over 50 seeking employment by the European Social Fund.

Alex Burghart: The Government recognises the challenges faced by some aged 50 and over, which is why we are providing a new enhanced offer for people aged 50 and over to remain in and return to work. Eligible older job seekers on Universal Credit will receive more intensive, tailored support during the first nine months of their claim, on top of the support that work coaches offer all claimants on skills provision and job search support. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund, (UKSPF) will act as the successor to the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. The fund is being led by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and aims to build pride in place and increase life chances across the United Kingdom. Places have been empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level through three investment priorities: communities and place, local businesses and people and skills. Local areas have been asked to consider local need and consider which cohorts they will support – including people aged over 50 – when developing local investment plans.The Government is currently assessing local investment plans, with first payments due to UKSPF lead local authorities later in 2022.

Social Security Benefits: Uprating

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has produced an impact assessment on the impact of different scenarios for benefits uprating on poverty levels across the UK.

Alex Burghart: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has an annual statutory duty to review benefits and State Pensions rates. That review has commenced following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics. These are CPI in year to September 2022 published on 19 October, and earnings growth in the year May-July 2022 published on 11 October. The Secretary of State’s decisions will be announced to Parliament by 25 November.

Employment: Menopause

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government is taking steps to help reduce the number of people leaving the workforce as a result of the menopause.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of the menopause on employees reducing their working hours.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to limit the numbers of women leaving the workforce as a result of the menopause.

Alex Burghart: With women over 50 representing the fastest growing segment of the workforce, there are few workplaces where the menopause is not being experienced by staff.The Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July. The Department does not collect such data on the impact of the menopause on employees leaving the workforce or reducing their hours.

Social Security Benefits

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2022 to Question 55061 on Social Security Benefits, on what date was the Benefit Cap last reviewed.

Alex Burghart: The benefit cap levels have not been reviewed since they were lowered and tiered from November 2016. The statutory review obligation changed on 24 March 2022, under section 96A of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, the Secretary of State must, at least once every five years (i.e., by March 2027) review the benefit cap levels to determine whether it is appropriate to change them, and this will happen at the appropriate time

Employment: Menopause

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of currently levels of support in the workplace for menopausal employees whose first language is not English.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of providing additional support in the workplace to menopausal employees whose first language is not English.

Alex Burghart: The Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment as an issue, emphasising the importance of the support and understanding by employers. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July. A key recommendation will be the appointment of a Menopause Employment Champion who will work with employers on disseminating best practice and encouraging them to implement workplace menopause policies and other forms of support such as flexible working.Alongside this, and separately, The Women’s Health Strategy sets out a range of commitments including encouraging employers to implement evidence-based workplace support and introduce workplace menopause policies.

Work and Health Programme

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the number of new participants in the Work and Health Programme in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.

Claire Coutinho: The number of new participants each month for the Work and Health Programme is available on GOV.UK, and can be found here. Table 1.1 shows starts on the programme by eligibility group for each month to May 2022, which is the latest published data. The next set of official statistics to August 2022 are due to be published in November.

Unemployed People: Cost of Living

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what additional steps his Department is taking to support people seeking jobs with the cost of living.

Alex Burghart: With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into, and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. To help people into work across Great Britain, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are extending the support jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes to help them to increase their earnings and move into better paid quality jobs. This new in-work progression offer started to roll-out from April 2022. Once fully rolled out, we estimate that around 2.1m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support. This will be provided by work coaches and focus on removing barriers to progression such as support with childcare or addressing skills gaps. This new progression offer is in addition to a change the government made last month to the Administrative Earnings Threshold in Universal Credit. By raising the threshold on 26th September 2022, approximately 114,000 more UC claimants on the lowest incomes will benefit from regular work coach support. The then Chancellor announced that we would go further and raise the threshold again from January 2023 to expand this support to approximately 120,000 more people. This is on top of the support already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year (on average) through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This also includes up to £650 in cost-of-living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment from November. For those who require additional support we have provided an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Employment: Mental Health

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her speech to the Policy Exchange think tank on 13 October 2022, what steps she is taking to support employers to improve their practices related to employees' mental health.

Claire Coutinho: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working with the Health and Safety Executive to strengthen guidance for employers on how to support employees with long-term health conditions. We continue to work with Mind and the business-led Mental Health at Work Leadership Council to promote best practice and guidance. We are working with small businesses to develop a national information and advice service for employers which provides better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting and managing health and disability in the workplace.

Social Security Benefits: Visual Impairment

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to increase social security benefits in line with inflation; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing social security benefits by less than the rate of inflation on blind and partially sighted people.

Claire Coutinho: The Secretary of State has a statutory duty to annually review benefits and State Pensions as outlined in the Social Security Administration Act 1992. Following the publication of Average Weekly Earnings for May to July and the Consumer Prices Index for September by the Office for National Statistics, the Secretary of State will now commence his annual review of benefits. When undertaking his review the Secretary of State is required to have regard to the Equality Act 2010. His decisions will be announced to Parliament shortly.

Employment: Menopause

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to tackle stigma of menopause in the workplace.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure menopausal employees in (a) Rother Valley and (b) the UK are fully supported in their workplaces.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure employers in (a) Rother Valley constituency and (b) the UK fully support menopausal employees in their workplaces.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to combat the stigma of menopause in the workplace.

Alex Burghart: The Minister for Employment commissioned the roundtable on older workers to look at the menopause and employment. An independent menopause and the workplace report was published and the Government’s response was outlined in July. The Women’s Health Strategy sets out a range of commitments including encouraging employers to implement evidence-based workplace support and introduce workplace menopause policies.

Poverty: Children

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the level of child poverty in City of Durham constituency.

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made on the level of child poverty in City of Durham constituency.

Alex Burghart: The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age. With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into, and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children. The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. In 2021, compared to 2010, there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 590,000 fewer children in workless households in the UK. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than in 2009/10. The Government publishes annual statistics on the number and proportion of children who are in low income families by local area, which can be found in the publication: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021 - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2021(opens in a new tab)“  This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances. To further support parents to move into and progress in work, the government provides a range of childcare offers. For more information on what childcare support may be available, we encourage parents to use the Childcare Choices website. The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.The £37bn of support also includes the current Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support to those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023 and is being delivered by Upper Tier and Unitary Councils. In the case of Durham, the local authority has been allocated £4,676,099.65 for this period. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.

Employment: Applications

Alex Chalk: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to people without internet access on applying for jobs that only accept online applications.

Alex Burghart: Claimants can apply for jobs online by using the computers and internet access available in all Jobcentres. Work coaches have discretion to use the Flexible Support Fund to provide claimants with internet access outside of the Jobcentre where the claimant is digitally excluded and where it will help the claimant progress in their labour market journey. Solutions may include appropriate digital devices and connectivity to the internet. DWP is also working with internet service providers to deliver lower-cost broadband for eligible claimants through the broadband social tariffs. Our staff are raising awareness of this, and wider cost of living support being offered through the government’s Help for Households measures.

Department for Work and Pensions: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials in her Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation, as (a) headcount and (b) Full Time Equivalent.

Alex Burghart: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to PQ 45646 on 23 September.

Pensioners

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what meetings she has held with organisations representing pensioners since her appointment.

Claire Coutinho: The Secretary of State, and ministers, regularly meet with organisations representing pensioners, regarding a range of issues. Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on gov.uk in line with transparency data releases and can be found here: DWP ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, April to June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Support for Mortgage Interest

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to vary the nature of Support for Mortgage Interest, in the context of rises to the Bank of England base rate.

Alex Burghart: There are currently no plans to amend the calculation of Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI). SMI is calculated by applying a standard rate of interest to the outstanding capital balance. The rate is set at a level equal to the Bank of England's published monthly average mortgage interest rate. A change to the standard interest rate will occur when the Bank of England’s average mortgage rate differs by 0.5 percentage points or more from the rate in payment.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to reform the assessment process for disability benefits; and what steps his Department takes to consult disabled people on such reforms.

Claire Coutinho: We published ‘Shaping Future Support - The Health and Disability Green Paper’ last year, which proposed changes to the assessment process to make our services easier to access, make our processes simpler and help build people’s trust. This included ways to further reduce the number of unnecessary assessments and of offering greater flexibility and simplicity in the way that assessments are delivered. Our Health Transformation Programme is modernising Health and Disability benefit services. It will deliver a more efficient service and a vastly improved claimant experience, reducing journey times and improving trust in our services and decisions. We received over 4,500 responses to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation. We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have contributed and will respond with a White Paper later this year.

Employment: Menopause

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of requests for reasonable adjustments in the workplace by a menopausal employee result in a reduction in hours.

Claire Coutinho: The Department does not hold this information.

Employment: Menopause

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government is taking steps to help ensure that employers are aware of the reasonable adjustments they could introduce in the workplace to help support menopausal employees.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to ensure employers are aware of reasonable adjustments they could introduce in the workplace to support menopausal employees.

Claire Coutinho: The Government’s response to the Health is Everyone’s Business (HiEB) consultation was published in July 2021 and sets out some of the measures we will take to protect and maintain progress made to reduce ill-health related job loss.   The measures Government is taking forward: provide greater clarity around employer and employee rights and responsibilities; address the need for employers to have access to clear and compelling information and advice that is easy to understand, trustworthy and accessible; and encourage more employers to provide access to expert support services such as Occupational Health (OH).

Disability: Children

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that children with disabilities and their families have sufficient financial support to help (a) power medical equipment, (b) heat their home and (c) have nutritious food.

Claire Coutinho: The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, including disabled children and young adults. Children and young adults with a long-term health condition or disability can be entitled to up to £156.90 a week, tax free, as a contribution to the wide range of extra costs they face through either Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP). These benefits are not means tested, paid in addition to other social security benefits and can also provide a passport to additional support such as premiums and additional amounts in the means tested benefits. An informal carer, such as a parent or guardian, providing 35 hours or more care a week to a child or adult in receipt of the middle or highest rate care component of DLA or the daily living component of PIP can also be entitled to financial support through Carer’s Allowance (CA). The Secretary of State has an annual statutory duty to review benefits and State Pensions rates, including the rates for CA, DLA and PIP. That review has commenced following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics. The Secretary of State’s decisions will be announced shortly. Should a household need additional support with day-to-day costs, such as food, they may be entitled to claim a means tested benefit such as Universal Credit. In addition, the Government has taken further, decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes: a Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 to six million people in recognition of the extra costs they face, including with energy costs;up to £650 in Cost of Living Payments for the eight million households in receipt of a means-tested benefit; andthe £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

Carer's Allowance: Uprating

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of raising Carer’s Allowance in line with inflation on householdincomes.

Claire Coutinho: The Secretary of State has an annual statutory duty to review benefits and State Pensions rates, including the rates for Carer’s Allowance. That review has commenced following the publication of the relevant indices by the Office for National Statistics. The Secretary of State’s decisions will be announced shortly.

Job Centres: Autism

Alex Chalk: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to progress the collaboration between the National Autistic Society and Department for Work and Pensions on testing ways to make jobcentres more inclusive of people with autism.

Claire Coutinho: Our Autism Accreditation test project, developed with the National Autistic Society (NAS), showed how we could build the knowledge and skills of our work coaches and improve our support for autistic jobseekers. This led to all 15 Jobcentre test sites meeting the standard and achieving accreditation. We are currently considering how we can achieve similar accreditation for all Jobcentres.Our Autism Accreditation project is part of wider action to improve employment opportunities for autistic people. We are working with Local Authorities to provide employment support to Learning Disabled and Autistic people through Local Supported Employment (LSE) and started testing Access to Work Plus to help meet the extra costs of workplace adjustments for those with the most profound barriers to employment. This is in addition to our existing Jobcentre Plus support that can be accessed by customers with autism, including priority access to the Work and Health Programme in England and Wales, Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES), our Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) who have expertise in supporting customers with health conditions into work, and our Youth Offer (for 16-24 year olds) with specialist Youth Employability Coaches for young people with barriers to work.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time was for a Personal Independent Payment assessment for people (a) over and (b) under the age of 50 in each of the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

Claire Coutinho: The information is not available in the format requested, as we do not collate this data broken down by the age of the claimant. Personal Independence Payment (PIP) referrals are dealt with in date order and a claimants age is not considered when arranging an assessment. We can, however, provide the Actual Average Clearance Time (AACT) in working days for a claimant waiting for a PIP assessment, in each of the last 12 months. This is shown in the table below:MonthOct21Nov21Dec21Jan 22Feb22Mar22Apr22May22Jun 22Jul 22Aug 22Sep22AACT67.766.767.270.166.861.958.554.252.349.248.545.5 Please note The average time is measured from the time the referral is received by the assessment provider to the time the report is returned to DWP.This data cannot be broken down by over and under the age of 50.The above does not include Special Rules cases, which have a separate measure (with an average target of 2 days which has consistently been met during this period).All the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment providers.The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Guardianship

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of altering the rules for appointeeships so that more than one person can take on the role in circumstances where there is a joint Guardianship or a similar caring arrangement.

Claire Coutinho: We have no plans to change our current approach for appointeeships. This is set out in law and states that where a benefit claimant already has a legally appointed authority acting for them, for example a Guardian, then a separate benefit appointee cannot also be appointed. Instead, the Guardian will act for the claimant; effectively they become the appointee without needing to be so appointed. Where there is more than a single Guardian appointed (joint Guardianship), then to ensure effective management of the claimant’s benefit, the Department asks for a lead contact with whom we will always communicate. If there is no legally appointed third party but there is a joint caring arrangement and an application for appointeeship is received, again for management purposes, the Department will only appoint one of the carers.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Office for Environmental Protection

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to Answer of 15 January 2001 to Question 133186, when he will publish the summary of the business case for the Office for Environmental Protection.

Trudy Harrison: Defra remains committed to publishing a summary of the business case for the Office for Environmental Protection.

Local Nature Recovery Scheme

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the Government’s proposals for planning liberalisation in Investment Zones will be aligned with the requirement in the Environment Act for Local Nature Recovery Strategies covering the whole of England.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of investment zones on (a) biodiversity and (b) waterway pollution.

Trudy Harrison: Defra and DLUHC are working closely together on Investment Zone policy to support our growth objectives and maintain HM Government’s strong position on the environment. Investment Zones will be locally led and areas have been asked to submit Expressions of Interest. We are not weakening our environmental ambition either at home or abroad and remain committed to delivering on the Environment Act, including setting new environmental targets that will drive action to protect and enhance the natural world.

Air Pollution: Standards

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Modelling of future PM2.5 in support of the Defra air quality target setting process and the Chair's summary to that report, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate that an annual average PM2.5 limit value of 10 ug m3 or higher would have been achieved across the UK, including central London, in 2020.

Trudy Harrison: Monitoring data made available via the UK Air Archive (https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/) shows that levels above 10 µg/m3 were reported at a number of monitoring sites during 2020. Our proposed targets will drive action to reduce levels to 10 µg/m3 or below at all monitoring sites by 2040 as well as reducing population exposure by 35% (compared to 2018).

Farms: Reservoirs

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of levels of water storage in on-farm reservoirs.

Trudy Harrison: The National Drought Group meeting on 14 October highlighted the prospect of low winter refill to on-farm storage reservoirs with below average rainfall. Sufficient winter rainfall is needed to ensure river flows enable abstractors to refill farm reservoirs. Farmers should plan around the risks to winter storage reservoir refill. The Environment Agency has licensed approximately 1900 abstractions relating to agricultural storage reservoirs. Above average winter rainfall is required in many catchments to refill depleted winter storage reservoirs. Below average rainfall over the autumn and winter would reduce the likelihood of winter storage reservoirs refilling fully due to the current low river levels which is limiting abstraction for refill, especially in parts of east and south-east England.

Land Drainage

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he intends to publish the findings of the review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to take steps to implement Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to require the installation of sustainable drainage systems in new developments.

Trudy Harrison: HM Government is currently undertaking a review of the case for implementing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. The review and decision on implementation will be reported in Autumn 2022.

Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to (a) progress with the passage of the Kept Animals Bill and (b) include all the parts currently in the Bill.

Scott Mann: The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, as amended by Commons Committee and reintroduced to the House of Commons in May, will progress to Report stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. We recognise there is strong support for the Bill from all sides of the House.

Farms: Reservoirs

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact current on-farm reservoir storage levels on the level of farmer confidence in planning agricultural production in 2023.

Mark Spencer: The full impact of the hot dry conditions for horticulture crops will become more apparent as the season progresses and will vary by region, crop, and soil type, among other factors. We are also aware that horticulture farmers are concerned that water levels may be insufficient and thus may negatively impact next season's production.Arable farmers were concerned about the dry conditions and lack of moisture in soil for autumn drilling, although rainfall was welcomed in September which has aided with the establishment of oilseed rape and the drilling of winter cereals.For arable crops, the prolonged hot and dry weather conditions through summer led to an exceptionally early harvest. Some hot grain needed cooling to ensure safe storage. Whilst results will vary by region, area, crop, soil type, and fertiliser applications amongst other factors, the hot dry weather did not have a significant impact on yields. The provisional estimate of the 2022 cereal harvest is almost 9.4% greater than 2021. The provisional estimate of the English oilseed rape production has also greatly increased by 43% in 2022.We continue to keep the situation and any impact on our agri-food sectors under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG), which was set up by Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor the UK market situation across all key agricultural commodities. We have also increased engagement with our valued industry colleagues to supplement HM Government analysis with real-time intelligence.

Horticulture: Water Supply

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to ensure farmers will have access to the water they need to produce adequate fruit and vegetable yields in 2023.

Mark Spencer: Defra and the Environment Agency are working closely with agricultural sector groups, including the National Farmers Union, on planning for different water availability scenarios for 2023.The Environment Agency has a package of measures in place to support farmers through Local Enforcement Positions to allow abstraction beyond their licence conditions. These include taking high flows when available to start early refill of storage reservoirs; working with water companies to share their supplies to help farmers; prioritising abstraction licence applications associated with storage reservoir grant applications; encouraging farmers to review water needs and vary licences now to improve their resilience for next year.Agricultural representatives, including National Farmers Union, are members of National Drought Group (NDG) and have contributed to the risks to agricultural production. The NDG met on 14 October 2022 to discuss the prospects for winter recharge and the potential for drought conditions in 2023. The next meeting of NDG will be on 28 November 2022.

Plastics: Waste

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to set a target for the reduction of the use of single-use plastic by 50 per cent by 2025.

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to introduce a specific plastic reduction target under the Environment Act 2021.

Trudy Harrison: We have no plans to set a target for the reduction in single use plastic. We want to set an Environment Act 2021 target in the area of resource efficiency and waste reduction that ensures a holistic view to waste and reduces waste overall. We believe that setting a wider reaching target that encompasses plastics as well as other materials will achieve the best environmental outcome as it will prevent switching to other materials which could have a greater environmental impact. To address the significant public concern towards plastic waste, HM Government is taking a range of measures that will contribute to reducing single-use plastic waste, including introducing a deposit return scheme for drinks containers and extended producer responsibility for plastic packaging. We also plan to publish HM Government response on our consultation to restrict further the number of single-use plastics placed on the market. HM Government recently consulted upon a proposed Environment Act target to cut residual waste kg per capita by 50% by 2042 from 2019 levels. We received over 180,000 responses to the environmental target consultation from a range of individuals and organisations. As required by the Environment Act 2021 (EA2021), we are required to set a target on resources and waste. HM Government remains committed to the Environment Act 2021, and will publish ambitious, achievable, and robust targets soon.

Home Office

Common Travel Area: Schengen Agreement

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the compatibility of the Common Travel Area with Schengen Area membership.

Robert Jenrick: The UK, along with the other members of the Common Travel Area - Ireland and the Crown Dependencies are not signatories to the Schengen agreement. There are no plans to change this position and all members are committed to maintaining the Common Travel Area arrangements.

Members: Correspondence

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tooting dated 24 May 2022, reference RA45408.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tooting dated 24 May 2022, reference RA43299.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tooting dated 16 May 2022, reference RA45162.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tooting dated 11 May 2022, reference RA45015.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tooting dated 10 May 2022, reference RA44955.

Robert Jenrick: I apologise for the delay.PQ 65933 – MPAM reference – MPAM/0348176/22 – The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 5 July 2022PQ 65934 – MPAM reference – MPAM/0399708/22 – The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 19 October 2022PQ 65935 – The Home Office, UK Visas and Immigration, MP Account Management (MPAM) team and Direct Communications Unit (DCU) have no trace of this enquiry.PQ 65936 – MPAM reference – MPAM/0307096/22 – The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 19 October 2022PQ 65937 – MPAM reference – MPAM/0305254/22 – The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 1 July 2022

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are in (a) initial accommodation and (b) temporary hotel accommodation.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are in (a) initial accommodation and (b) temporary hotel accommodation in each region as of 18 October 2022.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers there were in (a) initial accommodation and (b) temporary hotel accommodation in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: Occupancy levels are recorded at a specific point in time and vary daily. The number of people flowing through (a) initial accommodation and (b) contingency hotel accommodation in any one year is not recorded.Statistics relating to supported asylum seekers temporarily residing in contingency accommodation are published as Immigration Statistics under the S98 population tables. The latest publication (March 2022) can be found here Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), under the document Asylum seekers in receipt of support (second edition). The data published at the end of June have been recently removed and are being investigated. An update will be provided in the next Immigration Statistics release.The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in specific accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Undocumented Migrants: English Channel

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people arrived in the UK by small boats across the Channel in each month since January 2019; and how many and what proportion of those people subsequently applied for asylum.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on small boat arrivals and subsequent asylum claims in the Irregular Migration to the UK quarterly report. Data on small boat arrivals by month are published in table Irr_02a of the Irregular migration to the UK data tables. Data on asylum claims from arrivals are published in section 4 of the most recent Irregular migration to the UK release. The latest data go up to the end of June 2022. Statistics on small boats include individuals who were detected on arrival to the UK, detected in the Channel and subsequently brought to the UK, and those encountered in the UK who were suspected of having arrived on a small boat. They do not include any persons who arrived on larger vessels (such as on a ferry), those prevented from departing France or intercepted by French authorities and returned to France, or those who arrived in the UK undetected.

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

Christopher Pincher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the support services provided by SERCO to asylum seekers housed in hotels; and if she will make a statement.

Robert Jenrick: We expect the highest standards from our contractors and monitor them closely to ensure these are met. The standards of accommodation and service are set out within the Asylum Accommodation & Support Contracts (AASC). Details of the AASC can be found at: New asylum accommodation contracts awarded - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab). The introduction of the AIRE (Advice, Issue Reporting & Eligibility) service has provided more independent and transparent oversight of standards through clearer complaints mechanisms for service users and supporting data that allows more intelligent targeting of performance improvement. All asylum seekers have access to the Advice, Issue Reporting & Eligibility (AIRE) service provided by Migrant Help, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through which they can raise any concerns regarding their asylum support accommodation or support services.

Visas: Married People

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the processing time for spousal and partner visa applications has been extended.

Robert Jenrick: The 24-week service standard is based on expected processing times due to the increased number of outstanding family visa applications. This increase was due to the prioritisation of Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timescale is for people to receive a response after submitting an application to the Homes for Ukraine scheme as of 18 October 2022.

Robert Jenrick: Data on Ukraine Schemes can be found here Ukraine Family Scheme, Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) and Ukraine Extension Scheme visa data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).Applications made under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme are being processed as quickly as possible, however the information requested is not published.

Members: Correspondence

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when his Department intends to reply to correspondence of 8 July from the Rt Hon. Member for East Ham, case reference ST98977.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office, UK Visas and Immigration, MP Account Management Team responded to the correspondence on 24 October 2022

Immigration: Applications

Peter Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for Further Leave to Remain (Family and Private Life) applications in the latest period for which data is available.

Robert Jenrick: The average processing times for Further Leave to Remain (Family and Private Life) applications are listed on the GOV.UK website athttps://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-decision-waiting-times-applications-inside-the-ukCustomers applying for leave to remain as a spouse or partner (on the 5-year route to settlement), or as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner, will usually receive a decision on their application within 8 weeks.There are no standard processing times for customers applying for leave to remain as a partner, parent or on the basis of private life (10-year routes to settlement or 5-year parent route to settlement). The average wait time for a decision is currently 11 months although there may be circumstances which result in some applications taking longer.Current published data regarding all application routes can be found on the GOV.UK website athttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q2-2022and athttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/managed-migration-datasets

Visas: Families

Peter Grant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the processing time for Family Visas.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As such earlier this year the service standard for family entry clearance applications was changed from 60-days to 120-days as a direct result. The bulk of resource has now returned to the route, along with an additional investment of new staff. We are keeping the service standard level under review.Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Visas: Fees and Charges

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact of visa renewal fees on migrants.

Robert Jenrick: No assessment has been carried out on the overall impact of visa renewal fees. Fees are set for the consideration of the application and are payable regardless of whether the application is seeking entry clearance or permission to stay.An assessment of the additional impact of immigration and nationality fees is published alongside the Immigration and Nationality Fees Regulations where fee levels are changed.

Fire and Rescue Services

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made on the impact of a potential national Fire and Rescue service strike on home safety assessments.

Tom Tugendhat: The Home Office encourages Fire Chiefs to consider and test the resilience of their plans in the event of industrial action.Section 6 of the fire and rescue services act 2004 places a statutory duty on fire and rescue authorities to promote fire safety in their areas. This statutory duty remains during periods of industrial action.

Body Searches: Children

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to publish data on the strip and intimate search of children by police disaggregated by age, ethnicity and gender.

Tom Tugendhat: Strip search and intimate search are two of the most intrusive powers available to the police. There will be times when its use is necessary, to prevent or detect crime or protect the individual or officers. However, it must be used in accordance with the law and with full regard for the welfare and dignity of the individual being searched, particularly if that individual is a child.For the first time, information on the ethnicity, gender and age of children subjected to strip searches or intimate searches, that have taken place whilst a person is detained in police custody, is being collected by the Home Office.Data have not been received from all forces, but data that have been collected are scheduled for publication on 17 November 2022 in the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical publication: Police powers and procedures: Other PACE powers, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - National statistics announcement - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Tom Tugendhat: Whilst the UK Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.The UK has over 200 sanctions designations in place against Iran, which aim to address Iran’s destabilising and unacceptable activities.On the 10th October, the UK imposed sanctions on five leading political and security officials in Iran, including Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij force.

Abortion: Clinics

Paula Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made on the viability on police enforced buffer zones around abortion clinics.

Tom Tugendhat: At the Report Stage for the Bill in the House of Commons on the 18th October, MPs voted to accept an amendment that creates national buffer zones outside abortion clinics.The Government respects the will of Parliament and will now work with Parliamentarians, the police, abortion service providers and religious and civil liberty groups to implement the amendment, should it also be backed by the House of Lords.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Housing: Construction

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of homes that will be built across all Investment Zones by 2025.

Lee Rowley: The underlying purpose of Investment Zones is to work with local partners to deliver quicker. To do that, we first need to understand what proposals local authorities have for this hence the expression of interest process which recently closed.Responses are now being analysed and such analysis needs to be completed before any announcements can be made.

Buildings: Fire Prevention

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his oral contribution of 17 October 2022, Official Report, column 389, in response to a Question from the right hon. Member for Leeds Central, whether the 24 buildings over 18 metres that have yet to be remediated are fitted with ACM or non-ACM cladding.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to his Answer to the Question from the Rt hon. Member for Leeds Central on 17 October 2022, Official Report, column 369, what the evidential basis was for his assessment that only 24 buildings over 18 metres are waiting to be remediated.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many buildings over the height of 18 metres with (a) non-ACM cladding and (b) fire safety defects are waiting to be remediated as of 19 October 2022.

Paul Scully: An error has been identified in the answer to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Official Report, 17 October 2022, Vol 720, c.369). A correction has been issued here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-10-19/debates/C4E8D21A-52A0-4DAA-80AB-8D5F0DC6D29F/LevellingUpHousingAndCommunities#contribution-51382932-D6C4-40CE-A1EB-A8AC6B17FC68Information and data on the remediation progress of high-rise (over 18 metres) residential and publicly-owned buildings with unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding systems is available in the Building Safety Programme data release on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/aluminium-composite-material-cladding#acm-remediation-data.For high-rise residential buildings with unsafe non-ACM cladding systems, the Department is continuing to work with building owners to progress applications for the Building Safety Fund at pace so more remedial works can begin as swiftly as possible. Information on registrations to the Building Safety Fund and the remediation progress of buildings proceeding to application can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/remediation-of-non-acm-buildings#building-safety-fund-registrations-private-sector-and-social-sector.No estimate has been made for buildings with fire safety defects other than unsafe cladding.

Fuel Poverty: Government Assistance

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with local councils on the provision of warm spaces; and whether his Department plans to provide financial support to local councils to provide warm spaces in winter 2022.

Paul Scully: We have taken decisive action through our Energy Bill Guarantee Scheme and Energy Bill Relief Scheme, to ensure that domestic and non-domestic energy users across the United Kingdom are protected from excessively high energy bills. The Local Government Financial Settlement for 2022/ 2023 makes available an extra £3.7 billion to councils in England, the majority of which is un-ringfenced allowing council to determine local priorities. We have also made available £1.4 billion through the household support fund. Decisions on provision of warms spaces are taken at a local level. My department continues to engage regularly with partners in local government.

Affordable Housing: Construction

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to increase the threshold at which developers must build affordable housing within investment zone.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of investment zones on affordable homes.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to put in place a mechanism for developers and local authorities to agree the number of social homes which will be required as part of a development in an investment zone.

Lee Rowley: The policy of Investment Zones is at an early stage of development, with councils having been asked to express their interest in the concept at this stage only. Published guidance can be found herehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investment-zones-in-england-expression-of-interest#:~:text=You%20must%20complete%20the%20EOI,support%20for%20the%20local%20economy. Further details will be announced in due course.

Social Rented Housing: City of Durham

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment the Government has made of the availability of social housing in the City of Durham constituency.

Lee Rowley: The Government makes its assessment on housing stock through the data collected from local authorities via the Local Authority Housing Statistics data collection, which provides how many properties were vacant at 31 March of each year.Details of housing stock levels can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants.

Capital Investment: Wales

Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the introduction of the Investment Zone initiative in Wales.

Lee Rowley: Government is committed to boosting growth across the whole of the UK. We will work with devolved governments and other partners to agree how we can deliver Investment Zones in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.Discussions are ongoing with the Welsh Government, and we want to ensure Investment Zones maximise the value of both reserved and devolved levers.

Capital Investment: Environment Protection

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether environmental standards in investment zones will be maintained at the same level as standards outside of those zones.

Lee Rowley: The published expression of interest guidance has been clear that applications which refuse to commit, in principle, to mitigate environmental impacts on or off site will not proceed. Further details will follow in due course.

Affordable Housing

Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress his Department has made on building affordable homes.

Lee Rowley: The provision of affordable housing is a key element of the Government's plan to build more homes, tackle homelessness and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder. The Government has committed an £11.5 billion taxpayer-funded grant towards the supply of new affordable homes.Since 2010, we have delivered over 598,900 new affordable homes, including over 419,200 affordable homes for rent, of which, over 157,200 homes are for social rent’.

Help to Buy Scheme

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to extend the deadline to submit new applications for the Help to Buy Scheme.

Lee Rowley: Help to buy has helped over 361,000 households to own their own home and will continue to help thousands of people until March 2023. The deadline for applications for the Help to Buy scheme is Monday 31 October 2022, ahead of the final legal completion deadline of 31 March 2023. No extensions to these dates are planned.The scheme is just one of the ways the Government has made homeownership more achievable and affordable. Shared Ownership, First Homes and the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme continue to support many more people into homes of their own.

Levelling Up Fund

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2022 to Question 64279 on Levelling Up Fund, how the project adjustment process works; and if he will make a statement.

Dehenna Davison: As I outlined in my previous response, we can work with places who wish to make reasonable adjustments to the scope and phasing of projects as they seek to mitigate delivery challenges including cost inflation. Where a place puts forward a reasonable project adjustment request, the department will seek assurances in a number of areas including whether there is a good case for the change, whether it continues to deliver value for money, and can be delivered.

Social Rented Housing: Construction

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of building more social homes amid the cost of living crisis.

Lee Rowley: The provision of affordable housing is an existing part of the Government's plan to build more homes and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder.   The government has committed £11.5 billion of taxpayer subsidy towards the supply of new affordable homes. This includes increasing the number of homes for social rent.

Rents: Students

Mary Kelly Foy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of the rise in rental costs on the finances of student households.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department continues to monitor private rent levels and understands that affordability may be an issue for some student households. DLUHC ministers and officials continue to take a cross-government approach to policy issues and work closely with colleagues in other departments.Many higher education providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance. In addition, all households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. As part of the package of support for rising energy bills, the Government is also giving a council tax rebate payment of £150 to households that were living in a property in council tax bands A to D as their main home on 1 April 2022. This includes full-time students that do not live in student halls or in property that is not considered a House in Multiple Occupation for council tax purposes.

Treasury

Rented Housing: Government Assistance

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he will take to help protect people who rent from the potential detrimental effects caused by changes to the UK economy.

John Glen: Ensuring a fair deal for renters remains a priority for this government. The government has committed to the ban on section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions to protect tenants and the government is carefully considering next steps to support the rental market. The government understands that people across the UK are worried about the cost of living, and are seeing their disposable incomes decrease as they spend more on the essentials. That is why the government has announced £37 billion of support for the cost of living this financial year. It has taken decisive action to support millions of households and business with rising energy costs this winter through the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. In addition to the Energy Price Guarantee, millions of the most vulnerable households will receive £1200 of support this year through the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, £150 Council Tax rebate and one-off £650 Cost of Living Payment for those on means-tested benefits, with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits. The Government has also extended the Household Support Fund in England until March 2023. The fund supports households that are not eligible for one-off Cost of Living Payments or for families that need additional support. The Government is continuing to keep the situation under review and focus support on the most vulnerable whilst ensuring it acts in a fiscally responsible way.

Banks: Taxation

Stephen Farry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of levying a windfall tax on commercial banks.

Andrew Griffith: Banks already face two additional taxes. The Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge is an additional charge on banking profit above a set allowance, and the Bank Levy is charged on banks’ balance sheets with equity and liabilities over £20 billion. Since the introduction of the Bank Levy in 2011, these two taxes have raised over £33 billion in additional revenue from the banking sector.

Social Security Benefits

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who may be reliant on benefits as a result of the loan charge and associated activity since it was launched.

Richard Fuller: The impact of the Loan Charge was assessed and set out in the November 2017 Tax Information and Impact Note. While the impact on individuals, households and families was considered, no estimate was made of the number of individuals who would be made reliant on benefits. HMRC has a well-established approach to helping taxpayers who are struggling to pay their liabilities in full, which takes full account of their financial circumstances. HMRC will agree a sustainable and manageable payment plan to spread the tax liability for anyone who is unable to pay in full. HMRC will not ask people to pay more than 50 per cent of their disposable income per month, unless they have a very high level of disposable income. These Time to Pay arrangements are flexible and can be amended over time to take account of changes in a taxpayer's circumstances.

Motor Vehicles: Import Duties

Alex Sobel: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to confer eligibility for temporary importation vehicle relief under the HMRC form C110 on people who have arrived under the Homes for Ukraine scheme for the full duration of their visas.

Richard Fuller: Ukrainian refugees entering the UK temporarily under the Homes for Ukraine scheme do not need to declare their personal vehicles to customs, pay any customs duty, or import VAT on their vehicle, provided the vehicle is taxed and registered in its home country. This is provided for under the Temporary Admission (TA) procedure which allows certain goods to be imported into the UK temporarily, with total relief from customs duty and import VAT. Under TA, imported goods or belongings must not be altered (but can be repaired to maintain their condition) and must be re-exported within a set time period (normally 6 months). Ukrainian refugees staying in the UK longer than 6 months under the terms of their visas can apply for an extension of the TA set-period by contacting HMRC’s National Temporary Admission Section (NTAS) at: ntis@hmrc.gov.uk. If they provide NTAS with a copy of their Biometric Residence Permit, or any other evidence of their permission to remain in the UK, HMRC will grant an extension up to 3 years. The C110 is an optional form which provides evidence that the vehicle is under temporary importation status if stopped on public roads by the police or a customs official.

Revenue and Customs: Training

Liz Twist: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC officers are trained in respect on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 including on data protection.

Richard Fuller: All HMRC officers are required to complete mandatory training on data protection, which includes topics such as data retention, the need for a legal basis for personal data processing, and the need to be aware of other relevant legislation. HMRC does not mandate specific training on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 but officers are able to access training on other areas according to need.

Treasury: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) HMRC are working on Retained EU Law legislation, as (i) headcount and (ii) Full Time Equivalent.

Andrew Griffith: HMT and HMRC hold a large body of Retained EU Law (REUL), primarily in relation to Financial Services and tax (including excise, customs and VAT). A number of officials from both HMT and HMRC work on REUL legislation. This work is carried out as part of officials’ normal business activities, and we do not record the amount of staff time spent specifically on this work.

Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services

Catherine West: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the HMRC helpline a freephone service.

Richard Fuller: HMRC is not considering making HMRC helplines a freephone service. Moving HMRC’s helplines onto freephone 0800 numbers would mean that HMRC would have to fund the helplines and pass the cost on to the taxpayers. HMRC’s judgement is that it is fairer for the businesses and individuals that use the helpline to pay, rather than the public through general taxation. 0300 numbers, which HMRC currently uses, cost no more than 01 and 02 numbers and will typically come out of inclusive minutes on customers’ phone contracts. Many customers will be able to access the services and support they need through one of our 200 plus digital services available through GOV.UK and via the HMRC app, which are free to use. Every day around 1.4 million users are supported through HMRC's online digital services, not including thousands more customers who are using commercial tax software products to help manage their taxes.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Swimming Pools: Energy

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to help swimming pools stay open in the context of increases in the cost of energy.

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the merits of offering continuing support to businesses and charities who run swimming pools in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, in the context of rising energy bills.

Stuart Andrew: We recognise the importance of ensuring public access to indoor and outdoor pools and that swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities.We appreciate the impact rising energy prices will have on organisations of all sizes, including on providers of indoor leisure facilities. In September the government announced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, under which businesses and other non-domestic energy users (including leisure centres and swimming pools) will be offered support.After an initial 6 months of the scheme, the government will provide ongoing focused support for vulnerable industries. There will be a review in 3 months' time to consider where this should be targeted to make sure those most in need get support.Sport England has invested £9,619,264 in swimming and diving projects since April 2019, which includes £6,260,502 to Swim England. This is in addition to the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund, which supported the reopening of local authority swimming pools throughout the country after the pandemic.

Rugby: Coronavirus

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to help prevent premiership rugby clubs from closure due to the financial impact of covid-19.

Stuart Andrew: Sport clubs are a vital part of our local communities and culture, which is why the government stepped in to provide significant financial support to them during the pandemic.This support included the £600m Sport Survival Package (SSP), set up to provide direct financial support to sports reliant on spectators and impacted by the pandemic restrictions. £124m of this funding was provided to Premiership rugby clubs, who were the largest recipients of SSP funding.DCMS continues to work closely with all SSP loan recipients, including rugby clubs, as well as Premiership Rugby and Rugby Football Union to understand the current situation and ensure a positive outcome for the sport.

Youth Investment Fund

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the programmes that were allocated funding from the Youth Investment Fund for youth programmes and supporting youth service delivery between 2017-18 and 2020-21.

Stuart Andrew: The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport originally launched a Youth Investment Fund programme in September 2016, which ran from 2016 to 2021. Following two rounds of applications, 91 funding awards were made in the six areas targeted by the programme. The six targeted areas were:Bristol and SomersetEast LondonEastern regionsLiverpool City regionTees Valley and SunderlandWest MidlandsA list of award recipients allocated funding from this programme, delivered between 2017 and 2021, can be found here.In autumn 2019 the government announced a new Youth Investment Fund which is being delivered in two distinct phases.Phase One of the Youth Investment Fund (YIF), administered by BBC Children in Need, delivered £12 million of funding in 2021-22 to over 400 local youth organisations in levelling up priority areas in England. Recipients of YIF Phase 1 can be found here.Phase Two of the Youth Investment Fund opened for applications on 1 August 2022. No awards have yet been made.

Tax Allowances

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing measures to ensure that large charities publish key performance indicators if they are to continue receiving tax relief.

Stuart Andrew: All registered charities must prepare annual accounts and a trustees’ annual report. These provide a comprehensive review of the activities of the charity, and the charity’s financial position. The purpose is to ensure the charity is transparent and accountable for its activities and financial management. The annual accounts and reports of registered charities with an annual income over £25,000 are publicly available via the register of charities on GOV.UK.Charities can be eligible for certain tax exemptions and reliefs if they are established for charitable purposes only and recognised by HMRC.

Civil Society: Newcastle upon Tyne

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will make an assessment of the level of reliance on (a) charities and (b) crisis support organisations in Newcastle as a result of the increased cost of living.

Stuart Andrew: The Government recognises that many charities and crisis support organisations across the country are seeing increased demand, although we have not conducted a specific assessment for Newcastle.We know that some of this demand is driven by households facing increasing costs, which is why government took action and introduced the Energy Price Guarantee for households and why, in England, an additional £421 million is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund from 01 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.We are also providing support to all charities, public sector organisations and businesses with their energy costs this winter by offering an energy price guarantee for six months through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This scheme will benefit charities and community groups across the country, including those operating in Newcastle.My Department will keep engaging constructively with the civil society sector up and down the country and across government to monitor the impact of levels of demand, and ensure DCMS is engaged on policy which impacts charities and crisis support services.

John Major: Correspondence

Sir William Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the House of Commons Library Research Paper 96/53 of 19 April 1996 on Questions of Procedure for Ministers, if she will request that the National Archives place in the Library a copy of the letter from the then Prime Minister, John Major, to Giles Radice, then Chairman of the Treasury and Civil Service Sub-Committee, of 5 April 1994.

Stuart Andrew: This letter is already in the Library. It was placed there in 1994 as part of the evidence to the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee.

Women and Equalities

Cost of Living: Domestic Abuse

Simon Fell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of the cost of living crisis on survivors of domestic abuse.

Mims Davies: Tackling domestic abuse is a priority for this Government and ensuring all victims and survivors of this heinous crime get the support they need.It’s concerning increases in the cost of living may exacerbate risk factors which Women’s Aid have highlighted, and the Home Office is looking to act on.The Government’s Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan commits £230m to this issue, including a focus of over £140m to work to establish a ‘flexible fund’ which can be directed to helping those most in need.

Gender Based Violence

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent assessment the Government has made of trends in the levels of violence against women and girls.

Mims Davies: Police data does not provide a fully reliable picture of trends of Violence Against Women and Girls. These crimes are often hidden and can go unreported to the police.Pleasingly, levels of reporting have gone up. This may be in part be due to improvements in recording practices, but also because victims and survivors are more comfortable in coming forward. We want to see these increases, so the victims and survivors can be supported so more perpetrators are rightly brought to justice.

Genito-urinary Medicine

Dame Maria Miller: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the Government's plans for a Sexual and Reproductive Health Action Plan.

Dr Caroline Johnson: We are committed to improving sexual and reproductive health in England and will set out our plans in due course. We have already taken great steps forward in the last year.In December we published an HIV Action Plan, reflecting our commitment to zero new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths by 2030. And this summer, we published a Women’s Health Strategy, which is being aligned with our broader work to improve sexual and reproductive health.

Medical Examiners

Sarah Green: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Government has made an equalities impact assessment of its proposed introduction of the statutory medical examiner system from April 2023.

Dr Caroline Johnson: In its assessment of the impact on equality of these measures, DHSC has concluded that the policy for death certification reform and the introduction of medical examiners should not lead to any unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation of any particular group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

New Businesses: Females

Dame Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to support female entrepreneurs.

Katherine Fletcher: We are committed to harnessing the skills, innovation and talents of female entrepreneurs. That’s why this Government launched a Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce in May 2022, led by Anne Boden of Starling Bank and with a membership of some of this country’s most successful female entrepreneurs.It will use its convening power to influence high-growth investors, raise the aspirations of the next generation and work to stimulate regional funding opportunities.

Females: Personal Income

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment of the potential correlation between the cost and availability of childcare provision and women’s incomes.

Andrea Jenkyns: We are committed to improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare. We continue to look at ways to make childcare more affordable and to encourage families to use government-funded support they are entitled to.In assessing the impact of its free childcare entitlements, the department regularly reviews the impact on parents from a range of different research publications. This includes the Families and the Labour Market release (from the Office for National Statistics) and the Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents.As part of the Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents, we also regularly ask parents about the effect that 30 hours free childcare has on families, including their ability to work. Almost 2 in 5 families using the 30 hours offer said that without the entitlement they would work fewer hours.